Gaza truce under strain after rocket attack

A rocket fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel today, putting further strain on a ceasefire brokered…

A rocket fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel today, putting further strain on a ceasefire brokered by Egypt.

An Israeli police spokesman said the makeshift rocket had landed near a kibbutz bordering the coastal enclave, causing no damage or injuries.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for what was the fourth such attack since the truce went into effect on June 19th.

A Palestinian official who coordinates with Israeli authorities the passage of goods into the Gaza Strip said they informed him that Israel's border crossings with the territory would be closed tomorrow in response to the rocket strike.

Yesterday, Israel reopened three of its crossings with the Gaza Strip after cross-border rocket fire stopped.

Israel had shut the crossings on June 25th after an Islamic Jihad rocket salvo which the Palestinian faction said was in retaliation for Israel's killing of one of its leaders in the West Bank.

Other Gaza militants have also fired a rocket and two mortar bombs in two separate incidents.

The Egyptian-brokered ceasefire requires militant groups to halt rocket fire in return for Israel gradually easing its blockade of the impoverished territory.

Israel sharply cut back the supply of goods into the Gaza Strip a year ago, after the Islamic militant group Hamas took over the territory from forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas's more secular Fatah faction.