GAZA CITY: Israel and Hamas traded threats of war amid fresh skirmishes along the tense Gaza Strip border on Sunday in which two insurgents were killed.
The escalation of violence comes on the eve of the second anniversary of Israel’s devastating assault on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip — known as Operation Cast Lead — and follows weeks of rocket fire from Gaza and a string of retaliatory Israeli air raids.
Turning up the rhetoric, both sides said they were prepared for another round of bloodletting.
"I hope there is no need for another operation like ‘Cast Lead’," Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom told public radio ahead of a cabinet meeting
"But if this situation continues — if missiles keep being smuggled in without hindrance, if they continue shooting into Israel, trying to hit innocent civilians — then, obviously we will have to respond and respond with all our force." he said.
On Saturday, a spokesman for the military wing of Hamas said his group was also ready for a new conflict.
"There is a truce in effect in the field. It is real if Israel stops its aggression and ends its siege. But if there is any Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip we will respond strongly," said a masked spokesman for the group, who identified himself as Abu Obeideh.
"We are completely ready to answer any Israeli aggression," he said, speaking at a press conference in Gaza City with three guards, who were all masked and armed.
The fresh threats come as Israeli forces, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, killed two Islamic Jihad insurgents, who were apparently trying to place a bomb along the Gaza border, the army and the insurgent group said.
"Soldiers opened fire on members of a terrorist cell which was trying to place an explosive charge in the immediate vicinity of the security barrier," an Israeli army spokeswoman told AFP. The barrier separates Israel from the Gaza Strip.
"The incident happened in the south of the Gaza Strip and helicopters backed up the fire of the soldiers," she added.
She said "soldiers received instructions not to hesitate to open fire when they saw terrorists placing booby-trap devices near the barrier."
Islamic Jihad confirmed the two dead men were members of the group.
Witnesses also said Israeli tanks fired at least 10 shells towards Khan Yunis, damaging three homes, but causing no casualties.
Late Sunday morning, the Israeli military said two rockets fired from Gaza landed in the Eshkol region in the southern Negev desert, causing no injuries.
Tension has been rising on the Gaza border, where armed Islamist groups have fired dozens of mortars and rockets into southern Israel.
In response, Israel has launched a series of air raids that it said targeted training facilities and smuggling tunnels.
It has also launched targeted assassinations of several top members of the Army of Islam, a group accused by Israel of planning new attacks.
Israel’s military said this week that one of its tanks patrolling the Gaza border had been hit by a Russian-made Kornet anti-tank rocket, the first time such a weapon had been encountered there.
And Hamas on Saturday hinted that it possessed a secret weapon.
"Our weapons are few compared to those of the Israeli occupation, but we have something that will worry the occupation," Obeideh said.
At least 23 mortars and six rockets have been launched at Israel from Gaza in the past week, the army said, including a Qassam rocket that struck near a kindergarten in a southern Israeli kibbutz, wounding a teenage girl.
While most of the rockets have been fired by other groups, Israel says it holds Hamas responsible for maintaining calm in Gaza.
On December 27, 2008, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in response to hundreds of rockets fired into the Jewish state.
The war, which ended in a ceasefire on January 18, 2009, killed 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.
Meanwhile, with peace talks stalled, the "entire world" could recognize a Palestinian state within a year, a dovish Israeli cabinet minister warned Sunday, urging the resumption of negotiations.
The comments from Industry and Trade Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer come after Ecuador formally recognized Palestine as an independent state on Friday, following the lead of other South American countries.
Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia gave formal recognition earlier this month while Uruguay said it will do so early in the new year.
"I would not be surprised if within a year the entire world, even the US, recognizes a Palestinian state, then we will have to explain how this happened," Ben Eliezer told reporters ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting.
Israel opposes any recognition of a Palestinian state, saying its establishment must be reached through negotiations and not through unilateral moves.
But with the breakdown of peace talks, the Palestinians have said they are considering new diplomatic options, and welcomed the recognition from the Latin American nations.
Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the first for nearly two years, began in Washington on September 2. But they quickly stalled, when a 10-month Israeli settlement freeze expired on September 26.
The Palestinians refused to resume negotiations without a new moratorium and on December 7 Washington admitted that it had failed to convince Israel to renew the building ban, despite offering a generous package of incentives.
Ben Eliezer, from the dovish Labour Party, said Israel must do all it can to get talks back on track.
"We must do all everything possible to renew talks with the Palestinians, even if it means a settlement freeze for a few months," he said.
Palestinian negotiators have emphasized a set of alternatives to new talks, including seeking recognition of a Palestinian state along the borders that existed in 1967, before the Six Day War.
