Period of Calm at Risk as Violence Flares in Gaza Strip

The clash, the most sustained in Gaza since Israel and the Palestinians declared a cessation of hostilities more than three months ago, threatened to chip away at public support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the coastal territory this summer.

A new public opinion poll released Wednesday showed support for his initiative eroding slightly amid concerns that relinquishing Gaza could pose a security risk to Israel. Nonetheless, 56% of Israelis surveyed in the Tel Aviv University poll, down from a high of about two-thirds in surveys earlier this year, said they backed the pullout.

Wednesday's confrontation in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis was in some ways reminiscent of the clashes between Hamas and the Israeli army that were common at the height of the Palestinian uprising. Over the last two years, Israelis used missiles to kill most members of Hamas' top echelon.

But it has been months since such a strike took place. Hamas, as well as most other militant factions, declared a unilateral halt to attacks against Israel this year. That ad hoc accord was separate from an Israeli-Palestinian truce declared at a Feb. 8 summit in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.

Hamas spokesman Sami abu Zuhri, speaking to reporters in Gaza City, said the latest violence jeopardized what the two sides have been calling the tahdia, Arabic for calm.

"Until this moment, there is no official decision to stop the quiet period, but I think it is about to collapse because the Israeli enemy did not give it any meaning, continuing with aggression," Abu Zuhri said.

Before dawn Wednesday near the southern Gaza town of Rafah, a member of Hamas' military wing was killed in the explosion of what the army said was a bomb he had been carrying. Hamas blamed Israeli troops for the death and said the man had been on a "jihadist" mission.

The Israeli military said that over a period of about three hours Wednesday afternoon, Palestinian militants fired 15 mortar shells and two rockets at Jewish settlements in Gaza. The Israeli military responded by firing the missile from an airborne drone.