Israel accuses Hamas of 'shattering' Gaza truce

Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused the Islamist Hamas movement yesterday of "shattering" the Gaza truce, after two rockets hit Israel prompting an airstrike which killed four Palestinian militants.
Olmert told the weekly cabinet meeting that Israel could not stand idly by while it came under repeated rocket fire and said he had ordered security chiefs to draw up action plans against Hamas's 17-month-old rule in Gaza.
His comments came as defence officials said that Israel's border crossings would remain closed to humanitarian deliveries to the aid-dependent territory despite mounting international pressure for a resumption of desperately needed food and fuel.
"The responsibility for the shattering of the calm and the creation of a situation of prolonged and repeated violence in the south of the country is entirely on Hamas and the other terror groups in Gaza," Olmert told ministers.
"We cannot tolerate this price tag that the terror organisations are trying to set against our right to prevent the continuing terror attacks and threats," he said.
Olmert said that he had asked security chiefs to draw up options for action against Hamas rule.
"I instructed them to... present different action plans against the Hamas terror rule without its hampering our ability to use all necessary force in our response to violations of the calm."
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is one of the two frontrunners to replace Olmert after snap elections to be held in February, echoed the prime minister's remarks, a senior official said.
"The calm is being violated, that's a fact. Israel can't accept violations without taking the action it determined ahead of time," she was quoted as saying. "The army must present the options."
Earlier on Sunday, two rockets hit Israel without causing any casualties or damage prompting a retaliatory air raid against Gaza City, which killed four militants.
In a telephone call to AFP, a small armed group not linked to Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committee, said that the dead men were its fighters.