The Islamist government of the Gaza Strip said Palestinian resistance groups were willing to lay down their arms and go back to a five-month-old truce - if the Jewish state did likewise. The head of the Hamas administration in Gaza, Ismail Haniyya, said all Palestinian factions in Gaza were prepared to respect the truce if Israel kept to its side of the bargain."Over the past two days, we've had meetings with the Palestinian factions and we have arrived at a clear position - to respect the truce as long as the occupier does too," he said.
"But so far the occupier has not honored its commitments, indeed it has closed the border crossings and tightened the blockade," he added.
After Hamas won legislative elections in 2006, the Jewish state imposed a crippling siege on the territory, which it tightened when the Islamists ousted their Fatah rivals from Gaza in 2007. An Egyptian-mediated truce in June that brought a halt to Israeli military incursions and Palestinian rocket attacks also called for Israel to lift the blockade. However, the Jewish state reneged on its pledge.
On November 4, Israel shattered the cease-fire deal by invading Gaza with tanks and troops, an incursion that killed seven Hamas members. The move prompted Gazan fighters to launch rockets into Israel, with tit-for-tat attacks from both sides continuing since.
A rocket fired from Gaza exploded near the port city of Ashkelon early on Friday without causing casualties or damage, Israeli army radio said.
Israel said on Friday it would maintain its closure of the Gaza Strip despite international concern over a deterioration of the humanitarian situation.
The UN Relief and Works Agency, which distributes rations to half of Gaza's 1.5-million population, said it had food stocks for "days not weeks."
They seem to have enough rockets to last for years, though.