2 Hamas militants dead after retaliatory airstrike by Israel

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli aircraft struck a rocket-launching cell in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing two militants from the Palestinians' ruling Hamas party. The attack came after Hamas activists fired a barrage of rockets at southern Israel.\nThe violence brought the two sides closer to a broader armed conflict. Hamas' military wing called off its 16-month truce with Israel on Saturday, a day after Israeli shelling was blamed for killing eight Palestinians at seaside picnic.\nThe rising tensions coincide with attempts by moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to persuade the Hamas-led government to endorse a document calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. That would in effect mean recognizing the Jewish state, which Hamas has refused to do.\nAbbas, leader of the rival Fatah party, plans to hold a referendum on the document on July 26. He brushed off Hamas' call to put off the vote because of the beach attack.\nIsraeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed "deep sorrow" over the deaths at his weekly Cabinet meeting, but insisted the Israeli military "never had a policy of striking civilians."\nMaj.-Gen. Yoav Galant, the head of Israel's southern command, said Sunday the military had proof it wasn't responsible. He said the military suspended artillery fire 15 minutes before the explosion at the beach, Army Radio reported.\nGalant said that Israel has not ruled out a ground operation against militants in Gaza, which it evacuated last summer after a 38-year occupation, the radio station said.\nNow that Hamas has openly resumed its rocket fire, the Islamic militant group "and all of its supporters should expect a serious blow," Galant said.\nSince Hamas reached the February 2005 truce, Palestinian militants from various factions have relied largely on rocket attacks in their battle against Israel. Israel has responded by bombarding militants' operations with artillery fire and air strikes.\nOvernight Saturday and early Sunday, Hamas fired 17 rockets at southern Israel, including one that hit a school in the southern town of Sderot, the Israeli military said. A man at the school was hit with shrapnel and his life was in danger, hospital officials said.\nHamas' military wing in Gaza said it had fired nine of the \nrockets.\n"We have decided to make Sderot a ghost town," said a Hamas spokesman who gave his name only as Abu Ubeideh. "We are not going to stop launching our rockets until they leave."\nResidents of Sderot demanded the government act to protect them, and city authorities canceled school classes after rockets hit the town. Israeli police were on high alert against revenge attacks throughout the country, especially at malls and on buses, where suicide bombings have often been carried out, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.\nIsrael halted its artillery fire against rocket-launching operations Friday while it investigated the attack on the beach. But it continued its more accurate air strike operations, firing missiles at Hamas militants on a rocket-launching mission near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, the army said.\nTwo militants were killed in that strike, and three were wounded, Hamas' military wing and hospital officials said.\nThere was no immediate reaction from Hamas to the strike.\nHamas killed more than 250 Israelis in attacks in the 4 1/2 years leading up to the truce. But it wasn't clear whether Hamas' takeover of the Palestinian Authority in January parliamentary elections would restrain its military wing from resuming an all-out bombing war.\nHamas political leaders said after the Gaza beach killings that Palestinians had the right to respond to Israeli aggression. They have not acted to prevent the movement's military wing or other factions from attacking Israel.\nHamas' heightened hostilities with Israel have come at a time of increased infighting between the group's militants and gunmen affiliated with Abbas' Fatah \nmovement.\nAmong other things, Abbas hopes his proposed July 26 referendum would help to end the infighting, which has killed 17 Palestinians in the past month. Accepting a two-state solution would also help the Palestinians achieve their dream of statehood and end a debilitating international aid boycott imposed after Hamas' rise to power, he said in announcing the vote.\nHamas immediately rejected the notion of the referendum, which is expected to win a clear majority despite rising anger at Israel and clashes between militants.\nAbbas, elected separately last year, met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Gaza on Saturday, and made it clear the vote would be held as planned, Abbas' spokesman said.\nAbbas and Haniyeh were scheduled to meet again later Sunday.\nIn other news, an Islamic Jihad militant was killed in an explosion in his home in the northern Gaza Strip, hospital officials said.\nPalestinian firefighters said the blast originated inside the house in the town of Jebaliya, and was not the result of an attack.\nIn the past, militants have died when explosives they were preparing went off prematurely.\nIslamic Jihad said the explosion was caused by Israeli aircraft, but the Israeli army said it knew of no Israeli operation in Jebaliya.