Region | Palestinian Territories
Hamas armed wing breaks ceasefire
Hamas's armed wing declared an end to a five-month-old Gaza ceasefire by firing rockets into Israel, but the Palestinian government called for the truce to be restored.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:38 May 3, 2009
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Hamas supporters attend a rally in Gaza on Saturday.
Gaza City: Hamas's armed wing declared an end to a five-month-old Gaza ceasefire yesterday by firing rockets into Israel, but the Palestinian government led by the Islamist group called for the shaky truce to be restored.
Hamas's armed wing said it fired the rockets from the Gaza Strip in response to the killing of nine Palestinians by Israeli forces.
"There is no calm between us and the [Israeli] occupation. The occupation ended the calm," Abu Ubaida, spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, the Ezz Al Deen Al Qassam Brigades, said after the group resumed rocket fire for the first time since the November truce took hold.
"There is no coordination between the military [wings] of the Palestinian resistance faction and the government or the authority," Ubaida said.
The Hamas-led Palestinian government later called for the ceasefire to remain in place. "The government is interested to keep the ceasefire and the calm and we are trying, through consultation and discussion with the Palestinian factions, to take a position in order to protect our people," government spokesman Gazi Hamad said.
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