Palestinian militants resumed rocket and mortar fire at Jewish settlements in Gaza today in a challenge to newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and his call for calm to talk peace with Israel.
Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said Mr Abbas's huge election victory on a platform of non-violence was a Middle East watershed but that Israel's planned pullout from occupied Gaza later this year would not be done "under fire".
Israel's parliament ratified a "unity" coalition assembled by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to see through the Gaza pullout. But the slender 58-56 vote signalled that internal resistance to the plan was far from spent.
Mr Abbas took 62.3 per cent of the vote in Sunday's election to succeed Mr Yasser Arafat. But Islamists boycotted the vote and refused to suspend attacks on Israel.
Militants wasted no time putting the new president to his first test, firing seven rockets and mortar bombs into Jewish enclaves in Gaza and one rocket into an Israeli border town, causing damage but no casualties.
The resurgence of militant attacks after an election lull and the threat of more Israeli army counter-strikes could, if not swiftly checked, stall the new diplomatic momentum generated by the rise of the moderate Mr Abbas.
A fresh Israeli raid for wanted militants after a suspension of such operations to safeguard the election posed another early test for Mr Abbas, who wants Israel to free thousands of Palestinian prisoners to help him get gunmen to lay down arms.
Mr Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, says he aims to negotiate for a state on occupied land after four years of bloodshed during which Israel boycotted Mr Arafat, calling him an "arch-terrorist".