Israel says will act against Gaza rockets

JERUSALEM, Dec 27 (Reuters) Israel said today it would resume attacks against Palestinian militants who fire rockets from the Gaza Strip but insisted it remained committed to a month-old ceasefire.

In a statement that appeared to rule out a major military offensive in the territory, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said: ''A directive has been given to the defence establishment to take pinpoint action against rocket-launching squads.'' The governing Palestinian Hamas movement said ''there is a risk the calm will be blown away by the wind'' if Israel resumes what the Islamic militant group termed ''a policy of assassinations''.

Two Israelis, both aged 14, were seriously wounded by a Qassam rocket yesterday and Olmert has come under growing public criticism for failing to retaliate to more than 60 such attacks from the Gaza Strip since the November 26 truce.

But under international pressure to keep the ceasefire alive, and with a meeting planned for next week with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Olmert had not been expected by Israeli political commentators to order widescale military action that might weaken Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Olmert and Abbas held long-awaited talks last Saturday, a meeting that ended with an Israeli promise to release 100 million dollars in withheld tax revenues to the moderate leader, bypassing the Hamas-led government.

''Israel will continue to maintain the ceasefire and work with the Palestinian Authority so that immediate steps are taken to halt the Qassam firings,'' Olmert's office said in the statement after he held consultations with security chiefs.

''RESISTANCE'' Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group, claimed its forces had fired the rocket that wounded the two teenagers, calling the strike a retaliation for Israel's continued military raids on its hideouts in the occupied West Bank.

Abu Ahmed, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, said Israel's decision to target rocket squads ''will not stop us from continuing our resistance''.

He said the truce should be extended to the West Bank ''otherwise residents of Ashkelon and Sderot'', two southern cities that have hit by rockets from Gaza, ''will never feel secure''.

Responding to the Israeli announcement, Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, said maintaining the ceasefire was in the Palestinian national interest.

''I also urge Israel to refrain from attacking the Palestinians and to be committed to the ceasefire,'' he said.

''Our past experience taught us that violence begets violence and bullets beget bullets.'' The truce has halted Israeli-Palestinian fighting in and near the Gaza Strip, but Israel has continued to pursue suspected militants in the West Bank.

Israel has killed 15 Palestinians since the ceasefire began, all but one in the West Bank. About half were gunmen.

REUTERS PB BD1509