Gaza rockets hit southern Israel - Israeli TV
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Militants in the Gaza Strip fired five rockets into Israel on Sunday, in the first such attack since the Jewish state began a unilateral ceasefire to its war on Hamas, the army said.
Mussa Abu Marzuq, the exiled number two of the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza, announced the one-week truce to allow Israeli troops to withdraw, in a speech on Syrian state television.
"The Israeli enemy has failed in its bid to impose conditions. We in the Palestinian resistance movements announce a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and demand that enemy forces withdraw in a week and open all the border crossings to permit the entry of humanitarian aid and basic goods," Abu Marzuq was quoted by AFP as saying.
"We are ready to accept all efforts, particularly those of the Egyptians, Turks, Syrians and Qataris, to reach an agreement that meets our known demands, namely the lifting once and for all of the blockade and the opening of all the crossing points, including the Rafah crossing" between Gaza and Egypt.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the Jewish state does "not negotiate with Hamas. Hamas is not a partner."
Regev declined to say when or if
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said earlier Sunday the Jewish state's unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was fragile and was being reassessed on minute by minute basis.
"The government’s decision allowsTRUCE PUNCTURED
Israeli troops and Hamas fighters traded their first shots on Sunday, puncturing a tenuous truce inPalestinian medics took advantage of the halt in
Israeli troops shot dead an eight-year-old girl in the northern town of
Hamas has said it would not accept the presence of Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip and would "continue to resist them". Israeli leaders have said the military would respond strongly if Hamas kept up attacks.
OBAMA WELCOMES CEASEFIRE
Obama welcomes Israel's ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and is committed to helping Israelis and Palestinians work toward peace, a spokesman said on Sunday.
Obama will say more on the situation in Gaza after he is inaugurated on Tuesday, spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said in a statement.
The U.S. president-elect will quickly get down working on the Middle East and hopes a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza militants will endure, a top aide also said.
"Let me say that all of us are hopeful that a cessation of violence will hold," David Axelrod, an incoming senior White House adviser, was quoted by AFP as telling CNN ahead of Obama’s inauguration on Tuesday.
Asked if Obama would immediately name a special envoy for the Middle East peace process, Axelrod stressed that Obama "intends to engage early and aggressively with diplomacy all over the world."
The new president will use "the men and women, the professionals who are in place, who are great, and, where appropriate, special envoys," he said.
"I think that the events around the world demand that he act quickly, and I think you’ll see him act quickly."
Obama has resisted pressure to speak out on the crisis ahead of his inauguration, insisting there is "only one president at a time" to represent the United States abroad.