| Godammer! I blinked and the hudna was over! |
Islamic Jihad resumed Qassam rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel on Sunday evening, following a shoot-out with Israel Defense Forces soldiers in the West Bank on Sunday evening, in which three Islamic Jihad members were killed. The shoot-out began after sundown Sunday when Palestinians began firing on Israel Defense Forces soldiers on their way to raid a house in Qabatiyeh. One of those inside the house was suspected of planning last week's suicide bombing in Hadera market, in which five Israelis were killed. The soldiers noticed a Palestinian wearing an explosives belt and shot him dead, and then surrounded the house in question, demanding its inhabitants come outside. After soldiers started a bulldozer, four men, one woman, and two children emerged from the house. The men were taken for questioning, suspected of collaborating with Islamic Jihad. The soldiers exchanged fire with the men who remained barricaded inside the house, Palestinian witnesses said.At least one Palestinian militant was killed in the shoot-out, and another is also suspected to be dead. It remains unclear whether the wanted suspect is among the dead. According to Palestinian sources, the militant confirmed as killed is Arshad Abu-Zeid, who owned the house. At least eight Palestinians were also wounded in the raid in Qabatiyeh, the same town where the suicide bomber who carried out Wednesday's attack lived.
In a statement from Gaza on Sunday night, Islamic Jihad threatened to hit Israeli towns near the Strip and called on "Palestinian factions to be united to confront the Zionist campaign against the Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian people in the West Bank." The militant group had agreed earlier Sunday to halt the rocket fire that has targeted southern Israel in recent days, if Israel would end its strikes on the Gaza Strip.