JERUSALEM - Gaza militants fired two rockets into southern Israel Thursday, causing no injuries but further straining a shaky, week-old truce. Israel did not hit back, but it kept vital Gaza crossings closed, triggering Palestinian charges that Israel was violating terms of the ceasefire.
Despite the rocket attack, the second since the ceasefire took effect, Israel dispatched an envoy to Egypt in hopes of negotiating a prisoner swap with Gaza's ruling Islamic Hamas.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a violent offshoot of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, claimed responsibility for firing the rockets. One exploded harmlessly in a field, the military said, refusing to disclose where the other landed. A statement from the militant group demanded that Israel halt its military operations in the West Bank.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Israel should retaliate." I am not interested who fired and who didn't fire at Israel," she told reporters. "It is a violation, and Israel needs to respond immediately, militarily, for every violation."
The truce, hammered out by Egypt over months of separate talks with Israel and Hamas, does not include the West Bank. On Tuesday, Islamic Jihad fired three rockets at Israel, wounding two people, linking the attack to an Israeli raid in the West Bank.
Previous truces have come apart quickly because Gaza militants claimed the right to retaliate for Israeli West Bank raids.
Instead of retaliating for the rocket attacks with air strikes at Palestinian rocket squads, as it did routinely during the year since Hamas overran Gaza a year ago, Israel closed crossings where vital supplies are shipped into Gaza, restoring a blockade that has caused severe shortages.
That hits at the main interest of Hamas -- ending the blockade and easing the hardships facing the people under its control. Hamas officials charged that by restoring the blockade, Israel is violating the truce. Underlining the high level of distrust, Palestinians formed a committee to track Israeli violations.
Israel was expected to keep the crossings closed Friday because of the latest rocket attack.
