Hamaz halts attacks, but Israel kills two militants

GAZA, Moday (AFP) The Palestinian militant group Hamas announced a halt to Gaza-based attacks on Israel, even as two Islamic Jihad militants were killed in an Israeli air strike on the outskirts of Gaza City.

Mahmud Zahar, the Hamas leader in its Gaza Strip stronghold, made the announcement shortly after Israel carried out its second of two targeted killing operations since Saturday.

"Under our commitment to the national agreement, made in Cairo, to a cooling down period until the end of 2005, the movement announces it has stopped its operations from the Gaza Strip against the Zionist occupation," he said.

Scenes of Israeli warplanes pounding Gaza had dented widespread hopes of a peace breakthrough less than a fortnight after troops left the territory following a 38-year occupation of the impoverished strip of land.

The announcement from the powerful Zahar came as a boost to a de facto truce observed by Palestinian militants since January and cemented at talks in Cairo last March.

If the Hamas decision holds, the end of rocket attacks could spell good news for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the eve of a vote in his right-wing Likud party for early leadership elections.

Faced with the violence, his challenger and former premier Benjamin Netanyahu charged that Sharon's Gaza pullout had been a security disaster, tapping into huge dissent among Likud's central committee over the withdrawal.

The 3,000-member committee votes Monday on whether or not to hold early leadership elections, a vote that polls have predicted Sharon may lose.

Sharon stormed out of a Likud meeting Sunday after power to his microphone was cut just before his keynote speech. A party spokesman said saboteurs had shortcircuited the power system after a speech by Netanyahu.

Before Zahar's announcement, Sharon gave the army carte blanche to halt a barrage of rocket attacks.

"There are no restrictions on the use of any measures in order to strike at the terrorists, their equipment and where they find shelter," Sharon told his cabinet.

Mohammed al-Sheikh Khalil, the leader of Islamic Jihad's armed wing in southern Gaza, and his bodyguard were killed when two rockets slammed into their car, one day after two Hamas militants were killed in a similar raid.

The Israeli military confirmed it had targeted 36-year-old Sheikh Khalil.

Although the armed wing of Islamic Jihad had vowed to unlock the "gates of hell" and "strike the heart of the Zionist entity" to avenge Sheikh Khalil's killing, faction sources denied their commitment to the Cairo truce was over.

Eight women, three children and several elderly people were injured in an air strike against a school north of Gaza City that was run by Hamas, Palestinian medics said.