Attacks batter Gaza ceasefire

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel carried out air strikes and Palestinians launched mortar bomb attacks Monday despite a ceasefire in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, but Israel's defense minister said a wider offensive was not imminent.

Responding to Egyptian efforts to broker a long-term truce, a Hamas spokesman said it would be prepared to halt hostilities for a year if a deal could be reached on lifting Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and reopening border crossings.

An Israeli aircraft attacked a car in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on the Egyptian border, killing one militant and wounding three other gunmen, medical officials said, identifying them as members of the Popular Resistance Committees.

The Israeli military said it targeted a squad that fired two mortar bombs into southern Israel. A Popular Resistance Committees spokesman said the dead gunman was a rocket-launching crew leader.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged Sunday a "disproportionate" military response to continuing rocket salvoes that Palestinian militants have described as payback for fresh Israeli attacks.

But his defense minister, Ehud Barak, signaled Israel would stop short of all-out war.

"It is not our intention to have an Operation Cast Lead 2," he said in an interview with the YNet news Web site. Israel's 22-day offensive in Gaza before a ceasefire last month had been known as "Operation Cast Lead."

"We said there would be a response and there was a response last night," Barak said about Sunday's air strikes.  Continued...