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Two rockets have fallen on Israel just hours after a ceasefire came into effect in which Palestinian militants promised to halt such attacks in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
The rocket attacks, which were claimed separately by the armed wings of the radical Islamic Jihad group and ruling Islamist Hamas movement, drew immediate threats by Israel to resume operations in the Gaza Strip.
The rockets, which struck the Israeli city of Sderot shortly before 8.00 am (0600 GMT) but caused no casualties, were an inauspicious start to a ceasefire which kicked into effect barely two hours earlier.
In a statement, Israel's Defense Minister Amir Peretz warned Israel would resume military operations in the Gaza Strip if Palestinian rockets continue to fall on southern Israel.
Hamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad denounced the rocket attacks, describing them as a violation of the ceasefire.
Under an accord reached late Saturday, Palestinian militant groups were to halt all rocket fire from the Gaza Strip against Israel from dawn Sunday, with Israel promising to halt military operations and withdraw from the Palestinian territory.
Palestinian Authority “president (Mahmud) Abbas and prime minister Ismail Haniya agreed with all factions to establish calm and stop rockets being fired (against Israel) as of Sunday,” Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told a press conference in Gaza City late Saturday.
In exchange, an army spokeswoman in Jerusalem said Israeli soldiers, who are mostly deployed in the north of the Gaza Strip to prevent the firing of Palestinian rockets at southern Israel, “have pulled back.”
The deal follows a phone call between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas, in which Abbas informed the Israeli premier that the Palestinian factions were willing to stop firing the rockets, according to Abu Rudeina.
“Ehud Olmert agrees to stop all military operations and begin withdrawing from the Gaza Strip at the same time,” he added.
The United States welcomed the agreement as a step toward peace.
“We welcome the announcement and see this as a positive step forward,” said White House spokesman Alex Conant.
“We hope that it leads to less violence for the Israeli and Palestinian people,” he added.
Together with the Palestinian announcement, Israel said it “will respond favorably” to the ceasefire proposal.
“The prime minister spoke with top Israeli ministers and security officials and informed Abbas that Israel will respond favorably” to the ceasefire, Olmert's office said in a statement to AFP.
According to the statement, Olmert received a phone call from Abbas “who announced that he arrived at an agreement with the Palestinian factions to stop all violence including rocket fire, tunneling and suicide bombings and that the cease fire would start at 6.00 am (0400 GMT).”
Abbas also told Olmert that “all the Palestinian factions are committed to the agreement and requested that in response Israel would stop all military actions in the Gaza Strip and would withdraw all troops from the Gaza Strip.”
Olmert, in turn, “spoke with top Israeli ministers and security officials and informed Abbas that Israel will respond favourably as Israel was in the Gaza Strip in response to the violence,” the statement said.
Israel has been operating inside the volatile Palestinian territory since late June, when militants captured a soldier in a daring cross-border raid, in a bid to retrieve the conscript and end the constant rocket menace. More than 400 Palestinians have been killed.
In recent days, Israeli troops have stepped up an air and ground offensive in the northern Gaza Strip in a bid to counter near daily Palestinian rocket attacks.
