The FINANCIAL — TEL AVIV/GAZA, Palestinian militants have launched several dozen rockets against southern Israel since the end of a six-month truce with the Jewish state on Friday, Israeli defense officials said on December 21.
The radical Islamic group Hamas announced December 19 it considered a six-month ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip to be over. The ceasefire was brokered by Egyptian mediators, and encompassed not only Hamas but also other Palestinian militant groups in the enclave.
"We announce that the calm between us and the Zionist enemy has finished entirely, and it will not be renewed as a result of the occupation's denial of its fundamental conditions and obligations," Hamas's armed wing, Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, announced.
Hamas says that Israel failed to lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip, which it says was a condition of the ceasefire. Israel denies this.
Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
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