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Fragile Gaza truce holds as Israel warns on Iran

14 March 2012 23:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A fragile truce that ended four days of violence between Israel and Gaza militants appeared to be largely holding on Wednesday, despite sporadic rocket fire and air raids, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.

Late Wednesday night an Israeli aircraft struck at farmland southeast of Gaza City, causing no injuries, Palestinian security officials said.

The raid came several hours after Israeli police said a rocket was fired from Gaza at the southern city of Beersheva but was brought down by the Iron Dome air defence system, also with no casualties.

Earlier on Wednesday, militants fired a projectile but it struck Palestinian territory, police said.

State-run Channel One television said that in light of Wednesday’s fire, schools in Beersheva and the other southern cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod would again close on Thursday as a safety precaution, after reopening on Wednesday following a three-day closure.

On Tuesday, in the hours after the truce was announced, police said eight rockets and mortar rounds were fired into Israel.

In the early hours of Wednesday, Israeli warplanes carried out two strikes that were said to be a response to the rocket fire, targeting "two terror activity sites in the northern Gaza Strip."

Palestinian security sources confirmed one strike, saying it set ablaze a wood yard without causing any casualties.

On Wednesday, Palestinian officials also said a seven-year-old child, Baraka al-Mughrabi, had died after sustaining a bullet wound to the head when mourners fired guns at a funeral on Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went before parliament on Wednesday evening and tied the conflict in Gaza to tensions with Iran over its nuclear programme, which Israel says masks a weapons drive.

He accused the Israeli opposition, which supported the withdrawal of settlers and troops from Gaza in 2005, of having given Iran the chance to take over the territory.

"They put Iran into Gaza and we will take it out," he said.

"What’s happening in Gaza is Iran. Where do the missiles come from? Iran. Where does the money come from? Iran. Who trains the terrorists? Iran. Who builds the infrastructure? Iran. And often who gives the orders? Iran.

"Gaza is an advance post for Iran," he said.

"I hope that the whole world today understands that the terrorist organisations in Gaza -- Hamas and Islamic Jihad -- and also Hezbollah in Lebanon, are sheltered by the Iranian umbrella.

"Can you imagine what would happen if that umbrella was nuclear?"

Netanyahu warned on Tuesday that the truce, agreed after four days of violence, would be short-lived if rocket fire resumed.

"Calm will bring calm. Anyone who disturbs it, or even tries to disturb it, will be in our gun sights," he said.

The truce, mediated by Egypt, ended violence that began on Friday with Israel’s assassination of a senior Palestinian militant. Militants responded by firing hundreds of rockets into the Jewish state.

Under the terms of the truce, both Israel and militants from Islamic Jihad, who were responsible for most of the rocket attacks, have agreed to hold their fire.