Rockets hit Israel as Gaza truce nears end date

JERUSALEM: Militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets at southern Israel on Tuesday, two days ahead of the expiry of a troubled truce.

Three rockets hit open ground in southern Israel without causing any casualties or damage, an army spokeswoman said.

The armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad movement said it had fired four rockets in response to the overnight killing of one of its members in the West Bank.

The incidents came just two days before a six-month-old Egyptian-brokered truce in and around Gaza was due to expire.
Hamas's Syria-based political chief Khaled Meshaal has said his Islamist movement will not renew the agreement.

Israel has said it remains ready to renew the truce if militants in Gaza halt all attacks its territory. It has imposed a punishing blockade on the impoverished territory that Hamas says breaches the truce arrangements.

Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip after a week of deadly fighting in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who now holds sway only in the West Bank.