The militant group Hamas said Wednesday it would not renew an informal 9-month-old truce, which expires at the end of the year, after Israel killed one of its leading activists in an airstrike in Gaza. The truce was brokered by Egypt, which is expected to invite militant groups, including Hamas, to Cairo in the coming weeks to discuss extending the agreement. In the past nine months, violence has dropped sharply, and Hamas refrained from carrying out suicide bombings in Israel. But it has repeatedly fired rockets from Gaza at Israeli towns, in what it said was retaliation for Israeli truce violations, such as airstrikes and deadly arrest raids.On Tuesday, a Hamas activist and a top fugitive from another armed group were killed in an Israeli airstrike in a Gaza refugee camp. "In the face of this Zionist aggression, no one should dream about the renewal of this truce," said a Hamas spokesman, Mushir al-Masri. Hamas reserves the right to retaliate for the attack, though it won't pull out of the truce right now, he said.
Violence continued Wednesday. Israeli troops entered the northern West Bank town of Qabatiyeh and killed Rafat Turkman, an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militant, as he tried to escape, residents said. The military said soldiers fired back, hitting three gunmen. After sundown Wednesday, a mortar shell fired from Gaza exploded in Netiv Haasara, just north of the territory, the military said. Channel 2 TV reported a soldier was slightly wounded.
| Yeah, they're gonna miss that hudna... |