Al-Aqsa threatens to scrap truce after Israel kills Hamas man

Following the raid, the Al-Aqsa Brigades threatened to scrap the de facto truce if the Israeli military did not halt raids against their members within 24 hours.

The incident came hours after Israeli officials hinted at a change in assassination policy, stating that if quiet obtained on the Palestinian side, Israel would respond with quiet as well.

Witnesses said undercover troops opened fire at a vehicle carrying militants of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. They said that a 14-year-old boy who stood nearby was wounded by the gunfire.

An Israeli military source confirmed the raid and said troops shot a militant who fled in a vehicle to avoid arrest.

"We demand that all killings, liquidations and incursions into Palestinian cities stop within the coming 24 hours," Abu Mohammed, a spokesman for the Brigades, told a news conference in Gaza City.

"If not... we will find ourselves free of any commitment and will then respond to Zionist crimes by striking anywhere and at any time of our choosing," said Abu Mohammed, who was masked and flanked by militants brandishing assault rifles.

"Our blood will not be the only blood shed and funerals will not be held by Palestinians only."

Abu Mohammed emphasized that the Brigades still stood by their commitment to Abbas to maintain restraint.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas also expressed concern over the raid Wednesday.

"The Israelis are continuing with these operations," Abbas said. "They know that we are fully committed to calming things down and they have to be responsible. They have to stop these operations so as not to ruin our efforts."

IDF kills Gaza girl; militants fire rockets
A three-year-old Palestinian girl, Rahma Abu Shamas, was killed Wednesday morning by IDF fire near the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the southern Gaza Strip.

Prior to the incident, Palestinian militants fired two Qassam rockets into southern Israel, causing no damage or casualties.

Also Wednesday, Mustafa Basharat, 30, mayor of the northern West Bank village of Atouf, was killed by an explosion after he took his cows to graze in an area where the IDF conducts live-fire exercises, medics said. The military had no comment.

A relative of Basharat said he may have been looking for stray ordnance in the area - off-limits to civilians - that could have maimed wandering children.

PA police deploy in southern Gaza
Earlier in the day, some 20 PA security police took up positions at the Tufah crossing in the southern strip, near a settlement bloc that has been one of the bloodiest flashpoints of the uprising, witnesses said.

Palestinian security sources said the armed police were the first in about three years to deploy at volatile Tufah near the sprawling Khan Yunis refugee camp, a militant bastion.

But as PA officers arrived at the junction for a coordination meeting with IDF counterparts, settlers rioted and punctured the tires of the PA cars, the radio saod. IDF troops then separated the two groups physically, preventing further clashes.

The goal of the meeting was coordination of the deployment of PA troops in order to bar militant rocket and mortar attacks in the southern strip.

Thousands of Palestinian police fanned out in north Gaza last week by agreement with the IDF. Israel gave the nod to Palestinians in a meeting of top generals on Tuesday to extend their deployment into the south.

The IDF declined comment on the meeting nor on Wednesday's stationing of Palestinian police in the south.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/532311.html