Hamas fires rockets at Israel, ending truce

GAZA, June 10 (Reuters) Hamas launched rockets at Israel today, formally ending a 16-month-old truce, after blaming Israeli artillery fire for the killing of seven Palestinians relaxing on a Gaza beach.

Amid the bloodshed, officials said President Mahmoud Abbas was weighing whether to go ahead with a planned announcement later in the day to order a referendum on a statehood proposal, opposed by Hamas, that implicitly recognises Israel.

The manifesto penned by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails is at the heart of Abbas's power struggle with Hamas, an Islamic militant group dedicated to Israel's destruction that came to power after a January election.

An Israeli army spokesman said six rockets were fired from Gaza overnight but it was still unclear whether any had landed inside Israeli territory.

''This is only the start and rocket firings will continue,'' said a spokesman for Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, a group that carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings in Israel since the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000.

''Next time, the rockets will be longer in range and they will hit places deeper inside the Zionist entity. The attacks come in response to the Zionist crimes and the killings of civilians in Gaza,'' he said.

Hamas has largely abided by a truce announced in early 2005.

Israeli officials, however, said the group has been helping other militant factions to carry out daily cross-border rocket attacks from Gaza, territory Israel quit last year.

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