Militants' missiles break Gaza ceasefire

Militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip fired at least two rockets into southern Israel today in breach of a five-day-old…

Militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip fired at least two rockets into southern Israel today in breach of a five-day-old ceasefire after Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The Islamic Jihad militant group said it fired the rockets after Israel killed one of its commanders in the occupied West Bank.

An Israeli police spokesman said one of the makeshift rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit a house in the border town of Sderot, causing damage but no casualties. The second rocket fell in an open area.

The Egyptian-brokered truce, which took effect last Thursday, calls on Hamas to prevent cross-border rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, which it seized by force a year ago.

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The deal, under which Israel agreed to halt its own attacks in the Gaza Strip and to ease its economic blockade of the impoverished coastal enclave, does not apply to the West Bank.

Today's attack came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert thanked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in talks in Egypt for brokering the ceasefire.

The salvoes followed Israel's killing overnight of two Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad commander, in the West Bank city of Nablus.

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