JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister issued a stern warning Sunday to Gaza's Hamas rulers after a weekend of rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory on Israeli communities.

Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that Israel holds the Islamic militant group responsible for the rare flare-up in violence and would retaliate for any attack against its people.

"I see the Hamas as directly responsible for any attack that comes from the Gaza Strip toward the state of Israel and the international community should see it this way as well," Netanyahu said. "Israel reserves the right to defend its citizens and we will continue to use all means to protect the people of Israel and the children of Israel."

The attacks, including a rocket fired Friday at an Israeli city six miles (10 kilometers) from Gaza, caused damage but no injuries. No Palestinian group took responsibility for the attacks.

Israel responded with a series of airstrikes on militant targets in Gaza, including one that killed a senior commander of the Hamas military wing.

Early Monday, a huge blast leveled the house of a Hamas commander in the Deir el-Balah refugee camp in southern Gaza, wounding at least 32 people, according to Palestinian security officials. They said the blast was the result of an Israeli airstrike, but Israel's military denied that, saying there was no Israeli activity in the area.

The regional Hamas commander, Ala Adnaf, was missing along with another person, and rescue workers were digging through the rubble. The explosion badly damaged 12 nearby houses in the refugee camp, the officials said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

Adnaf was known as a bomb maker. Often there are accidental explosions in bomb factories. In the hours before this blast, Palestinian security officials said there were two other explosions elsewhere in Gaza, apparently caused by an intense heat wave detonating chemicals.

Years of rocket fire from Gaza has largely subsided since Israel launched a fierce offensive in the Palestinian territory in December 2008.

The three-week war dramatically reduced the number of rockets hitting Israel, but devastated the densely populated and impoverished Palestinian territory and drew international criticism.

Most of the rocket fire since has been carried out by smaller militant groups that do not necessarily accept Hamas authority. Hamas has largely refrained from launching attacks, apparently because of concerns about Israeli retaliation.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum accused Netanyahu of trying to "invent pretexts for new attacks" on Hamas.

"Netanyahu and his government bear all the consequences of this escalation," he said.

The violence came shortly after the Arab League authorized Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to enter into direct peace talks with Israel, a notion that Gaza militants abhor. The league endorsed the idea after President Barack Obama warned Abbas in a letter that U.S.-Palestinian relations might suffer if the Palestinian leader refused to resume direct negotiations.

more here
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_israel_palestinians

thats why there can never be peace there. someone is always shooting rockets into isreal.

They never learn. They shoot rockets into Israel then Israel pummels them.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

well, the rockets are landing in different spots... maybe that will work

How come NO ONE ever criticizes Hamas or Al Fatah or Hezbollah when they decide they're gonna UNILATERALLY rain rockets down on ISRAELI CITIZENS ... ? The Anti-Israel crowd never fails to jump all over Israel when it makes genuine attempts to make peace with fraudulent entities who offer only 'the peace of the grave'. What did 'Land For Peace' get Israel? Rockets. What would giving up the Golan Heights get Israel? More rockets. There is NO way to make peace with an insincere and untrustworthy entity on the other side of the equation. Israel's best solution is to introduce the Seventh-Century throatcutters to the technique of making glass from sand at elevated temperature and pressure.

i've always wondered that... no matter what, it's the isrealies fault
i very rarely see isreal starting any of this.

And the ones that DO the rocketing NEVER get any international criticism from ANYone ... how come the UN never criticizes Hamas / Fatah / Hezbollah, etc ... ? 'Cuz they SUPPORT 'em in their attacks. Gotta stay tight with 'The Brotherhood' ...

see the problem there is was jews decided to have their own inquisition and the palastine people who decided to form something cause palastine really isn't a country,to have something to rebel by,but theres one thing they forgot jews aka zionist run our media here in america so they will always stay oppressed

Pffffffffffffftttt ...

palastine equals jew haters,this and many more reasons is why i'm atheist,i kick back and laugh

Non-serious input. Who cares if you're atheist?

seriously if it stayed muslem then we wouldn't pay eygypt 180 mill a year not to invade isreal

personally, i don't hate the jews...i have no reason to...i know the muslims do, they've told so over and over.

other atheist cause they actually grew up and realized santa claus and the easter bunny ,plus god doesn't exist

Again: Non-serious input. Who cares if you're atheist? You're still gonna die just like the rest of us. Non-serious input.

religious people can say god created our universe true scientist ask....where did god come from

yep and i aint going to eternal happiness in heaven cause it doesn';t exist and i don't care if you don't care i believe in your republican conservative GOD,catholic?

religion can hold back science. has for thousands of years.

really where did the bible mention about sub atomic particals which 2 protons have a positive charge to create matter,oh my bad the bible is simple....god did it...lol

not sure the people that were around when the bible was written would understand that.

hell thats been my point since i was 12