JERUSALEM — Hamas formally announced the end of its unwritten, often-breached truce with Israel on Friday as Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired four rockets into southern Israel.
The Israeli military said two rockets were fired Friday morning and two more after sunset. It said troops guarding Israeli farmers in fields adjoining Gaza also came under sniper fire from across the border. No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.
In a statement posted on its website, the Islamic militant group Hamas said Israel had breached agreements by imposing a painful economic blockade on Gaza, staging military strikes into the densely populated coastal strip and continuing to hunt down Hamas operatives in the West Bank.
“Since the enemy did not abide with the conditions . . . we hold the enemy fully responsible for ending the truce and we confirm that the Palestinian resistance factions headed by Hamas will act,” the statement said.
There was no immediate Israeli comment about Hamas’ announcement that it would not extend the cease-fire past its end Friday. Israel said previously that the 6-month-old truce, brokered by Egypt, didn’t have an official expiration date and that the government was interested in prolonging “understandings” with Hamas.
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was critical of Hamas’ move.
“I sincerely hope that there will not be a resumption of the violence because that is not going to help the people of Gaza, it is not going to help the Palestinians, it is not going to help the Palestinian cause,” she said.
Hamas, which violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, is listed as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and much of the international community, and Israel does not officially have direct contacts with it.
Though violence and casualties dropped significantly under the cease-fire agreement, the truce has increasingly unraveled since early November, when Israeli soldiers entered Gaza to destroy a tunnel that the army said could have been used in a cross-border raid. In response, Palestinian militants resumed firing rockets at Israel.
The lull has been a relief for people on both sides of the border. A poll published Tuesday indicated that 74 percent of Palestinians and 51 percent of Israelis wanted to extend the cease-fire.
