Despite cease-fire, Gaza rocket strikes Israel

JERUSALEM - Palestinian extremists fired a rocket from Gaza yesterday that exploded close to the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon without causing any damages or injuries, an Israeli military spokesman said.

Israeli forces and Gaza extremists are supposed to refrain from attacking each other under a fragile cease-fire. The truce has been breached several times, making diplomatic efforts to build a lasting agreement difficult.

The rocket attack was the first from Gaza since Thursday, said the Israeli military spokesman, who declined to be identified under army regulations. There was no claim of responsibility from any Palestinian group.

Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers stopped fighting in late January after a fierce three-week Israeli offensive meant to halt eight years of near-daily rocket fire from Gaza at southern Israel.

Nearly 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the fighting, about half of them civilians, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, three of them civilians, according to the government.

Since then, Palestinians have fired rockets sporadically toward Israel and killed one soldier on Tuesday. Israel has conducted retaliatory strikes and pounded border tunnels that it says Hamas uses to smuggle in weapons from Egypt.

Hamas has ruled out a long-term cease-fire with Israel if officials do not open sealed border crossings with the coastal territory. Israel is unlikely to do so while the extremist group rules Gaza and holds captive Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who was seized in a cross-border raid in 2006.

President Obama's Mideast envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell, completed his first visit with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Friday evening, but little substantive work can be done until Israel completes its elections.

Yesterday, Jordan's King Abdullah II called for the immediate resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after meeting with Mitchell in Amman.

Abdullah said Mitchell "insisted very serious negotiations should start on the basis of a two-state solution as soon as possible," according to a statement issued by the royal palace.

"It's important not to lose time, and to move immediately to resume talks," Abdullah added.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued his criticism of Israel yesterday, this time for arresting leading Hamas parliamentarians.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Erdogan described the West Bank and Gaza Strip as "an open-air prison" and said Israel's moves provoked Hamas.

"You expect them to sit obediently?" he asked in the interview.