By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Militants in the Hamas-controlled GazaStrip fired at least two rockets into southern Israel onTuesday, breaching a five-day-old ceasefire after Israelitroops killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The Egyptian-brokered truce, which took effect lastThursday, calls on Hamas to prevent cross-border rocket firefrom the Gaza Strip, which it seized by force a year ago.
The deal, under which Israel agreed to halt its own attacksin the Gaza Strip and to ease its economic blockade of theimpoverished coastal enclave, does not apply to the West Bank.
An Israeli police spokesman said one of the makeshiftrockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit a house in the bordertown of Sderot, causing damage but no casualties. The secondrocket fell in an open area.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for theattack, just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmertthanked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in talks in Egypt forbrokering the ceasefire.
The salvoes followed Israel's killing overnight of twoPalestinians, including an Islamic Jihad commander, in the WestBank city of Nablus.
It was the first fatal raid since a ceasefire took hold inthe Gaza Strip last Thursday. Similar West Bank operations andPalestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip led to the breakdown of previous truce deals.
Islamic Jihad had threatened to launch attacks insideIsrael to avenge the death in Nablus of Tarek Juma Abu Ghali,whom the militant group described as one of its most seniorcommanders in the northern West Bank.
A second Palestinian, affiliated with the Islamist militantgroup Hamas, was also killed in the raid in Nablus.
"Calm in Gaza does not mean that we will sit in our seatswaiting to be slaughtered one by one," Islamic Jihad said in astatement. "This crime will not pass without punishment and thecoming days will be a witness to that."
Hamas, which claimed responsibility for a shooting attackthat wounded three Israeli hikers near a West Bank settlementon Friday, also called on Palestinian groups in the West Bankto retaliate for the killings.
Nablus Governor Jamal Muheisen called the Israeli raid inthe city an "unjustified crime" but said he did not believe itwould threaten the Gaza truce.
Officials on both sides said from the start that theydoubted the truce in the Gaza Strip would last.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli army confirmed thatPalestinians fired a mortar shell into Israel from Gazaovernight in the first reported violation by militants of theceasefire.
No one was hurt in that incident and there was no immediateclaim of responsibility.
(Reporting by Atef Saad in Nablus; Dan Williams and BrendaGazzar in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writing byAdam Entous; Editing by Jeffrey Heller)