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Palestinian Rockets, Israeli Airstrikes Heat Up Gaza Border

by Robert Berger

   JERUSALEM --

   Palestinian militants fired 45 rockets and mortars Wednesday at
   southern Israel, rattling farming communities on the Gaza border. The
   Israeli military said it responded with airstrikes on 25 facilities
   belonging to Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza.

   Violence has flared on the Gaza frontier for nearly three months, and
   it could intensify. Palestinians have been flying burning kites across
   the border causing massive damage to Israeli crops and nature reserves,
   and there is growing pressure in Israel for harsher retaliation.

   The right-wing Israeli government has avoided targeting the kite
   flyers, fearing that Palestinian casualties will spark more violence
   and, possibly, the fourth Gaza war in the past 10 years. But that
   policy is facing intense criticism from within the ruling coalition.

   Shuli Mualem of the hawkish Jewish Home party says rockets and burning
   kites are both acts of terror, and Israel has a responsibility to take
   tougher action to protect its citizens.

   Hamas says it is responding to Israeli "aggression" and the killing of
   at least 125 Palestinians during protests, which began at the end of
   March.

   Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar said the Palestinians do not
   want war, but he warned that the tit-for-tat attacks could lead to an
   "explosion."

   It is similar to the situation prior to the last Gaza war four years
   ago: a bloody, 50-day conflict that neither side said it wanted.