Hamas says Israel wounds 2 Gaza gunmen

Gaza, May 28: Israeli soldiers today shot and critically wounded two Hamas gunmen in a fresh round of violence triggered by the firing of mortars at Israel from the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials and medics said.

The confrontation followed a series of Israeli air strikes overnight against Hamas targets after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged unlimited military action aimed at halting rocket fire from Gaza that has killed two Israelis in the past week.

Hamas said soldiers aimed artillery fire at gunmen who had shot mortars toward Israel, in southern Gaza, before dawn. Medics said both were taken to hospital where they were listed in critical condition.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment.

Hamas's armed wing claimed responsibility yesterday for a series of rocket attacks against Israel, one that killed an Israeli driver, 36, in Sderot, and another that slammed into a home injuring one person, Israeli medics said.

''No one involved in terror has immunity pure and simple,'' Olmert said in broadcast remarks at Israel's weekly cabinet session yesterday.

The Israeli air force launched a series of air strikes flattening at least two Hamas executive force targets in Gaza and aiming at a rocket crew, but causing no injury, Hamas sources said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed there were four air strikes late yesterday.

Gaza militants have fired more than 220 rockets at Israel since May 15, wounding more than a dozen in addition to killing two people, the Israeli army said.

Israel has struck back with a series of air strikes that have killed more than 40 Palestinians, most of them militants.

Hamas rejected a bid by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday to call a new truce to end the cycle of bloodshed.

''We will not surrender, we will not raise the white flag,'' Ayman Taha, a spokesman for Hamas, said. He reiterated the group's demand for a wider truce that would include the West Bank where Israel launches frequent arrest raids.

''Hamas rejects giving a calm for free and Hamas rejects a calm that does not cover the West Bank too,'' Taha added.

A top aide to Abbas, Nabil Abu Rdainah, told Reuters the Palestinian leader would press on for a deal just the same.

Israel was also cool to the ceasefire plan, and signalled it would not abide by a truce in this case.

''We need to be prepared for a long confrontation independent of the internal agreements of the Palestinians,'' an Israeli official quoted Olmert as saying at the cabinet meeting.

Reuters>