Gaza militants defy Abbas with surge of attacks

GAZA - Gaza militants struck the border with Israel and launched barrages of rockets into the Jewish state on Wednesday, defying calls for a halt to attacks from the frontrunner to succeed Yasser Arafat.

Violence has surged in the Gaza Strip ahead of Sunday's presidential election, likely to be won by moderate Mahmoud Abbas, who has called for a truce in the 4-year-old uprising to allow talks with Israel to resume.

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian gunman who attacked them at the Erez border crossing, the day after an Israeli shell killed seven young Palestinians in a Gaza strawberry field. Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed the attack.

At least seven Israeli soldiers were wounded by a rocket strike on an army base near the Gaza border, Israeli media said. The army confirmed that seven Israelis were hurt, but details of the incident were under censorship.

The Islamic militant group Hamas said it fired at the base in response to the killing of the Palestinians the day before.

Fighters have defied calls from Abbas for a halt to attacks that he says are useless because they draw Israeli retaliation. Israel has stepped up raids into Gaza recently to curb mortar and rocket fire.

Bringing the militants on board will be the most important challenge for Abbas after Sunday's elections, for which polls show that he is the overwhelming favourite.

Few believe renewed hopes for peace in the Middle East following Arafat's death on November 11 will last long if Abbas fails to win.

On the campaign trail he has pledged to work to co-opt the militants rather than using force to rein them in and stepped up his rhetoric -- describing Israel as the "Zionist enemy" in unprecedented words after the Palestinian deaths on Tuesday.

But he has not stopped calling for a halt to militant attacks, despite demands from the groups behind them for an apology.

"These actions are wrong and I will not apologise for saying that," Abbas said during campaigning in Gaza on Tuesday.

Three policemen on the Palestinian side of the crossing were wounded in Wednesday's shooting at Erez and taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment. Palestinian witnesses said Israel refused Palestinian ambulances access.

A convoy of 400 Haj pilgrims heading out of occupied Gaza for Mecca in Saudi Arabia was turned back at Erez by troops searching the crossing after the attack. Soldiers found a bomb which was destroyed in a controlled explosion, the army said.

A total of 4500 Haj pilgrims have been given permits to make the journey via Israel and Egypt.

"The attack was directed against us but it hampers our efforts to allow those Palestinians to leave for the Haj. It has proved totally counterproductive," Levy said.
Israeli forces shut the usual south Gaza crossing point from Rafah into Egypt last month after Palestinians tunnelled under an army outpost there and blew it up, killing five soldiers.

In the strawberry field incident, the army said it had targeted militants who had crept into the area and fired mortar bombs into a nearby Jewish settlement, wounding two people.

The army commander in north Gaza expressed regret "if civilians were indeed hurt".

- REUTERS