Gaza Shoots Rockets into Israel

Posted August 21st, 2011 at 6:40 am (UTC-5)
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Palestinian police say Israeli troops arrested scores of Hamas members Sunday in the southern West Bank, just hours after the faction's Gaza branch fired rockets into Israel.

Israel says militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip have fired more than 100 rockets into southern Israel in the past few days.

Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai says Israel “will not hesitate” to widen its military operation if necessary.

Hamas has said it is ending a truce with Israel in response to a series of Israeli airstrikes on militant targets in Gaza since Thursday that have killed at least 14 Palestinians, mostly militants. An Israeli man has been killed by a rocket attack. Five Egyptian police officers were also killed in clashes along the Israel-Egypt border.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak apologized Saturday for the officers' deaths. He said Israel will conduct a joint investigation of the incident with the Egyptian military. The Egyptian government said the apology was “not enough.”

Protesters outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo early Sunday cheered when a man climbed atop the building and removed the Israeli flag, replacing it with an Egyptian flag.

The Arab League says permanent representatives of its 22 members are holding an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss the violence in the region.

Egypt's military-led government has threatened to withdraw its ambassador to Israel to protest the killings, blaming them on Israeli troops Cairo said violated the two neighbors' 1979 peace treaty.