Hamas hints it’s not interested in more Gaza violence in bid to calm tensions with Israel

Hamas hints it wants to keep Gaza quiet

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Gaza’s Hamas rulers said Friday they have contacted armed groups in the territory in an apparent bid to keep them from attacks that could provoke Israel.

A string of recent Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes have ratcheted up tensions. Earlier Friday, Israeli aircraft struck multiple targets in Gaza after a rocket landed in southern Israel the day before.

Gaza health official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said three Palestinian children were wounded in one of the airstrikes and hospitalized.

The Israeli military said aircraft struck two weapons-making factories and two weapons-storage facilities. Hamas security officials said 10 sites were hit: a cheese factory, a moviemaking complex built by the territory’s Islamic militant Hamas rulers and open areas where militants train.

A statement released by the Hamas government after the aerial assaults accused Israel of an “escalation” against Gaza. But it also said the Hamas government was “making contact with the factions to safeguard internal agreement.”

Hamas has never explicitly criticized attacks against Israel, though top officials have said such attacks don’t serve Palestinian interests right now. Friday’s statement indicated that the Islamic group was acting to get the territory’s other militant groups to respect this policy.

Some in Gaza have criticized Hamas — whose main rallying cry is armed confrontation against Israel — for seeking to restrict rocket attacks on Israeli territory.

Last year, Israel conducted a bruising war in Gaza after years of rocket attacks. Since then, Hamas has tried to avoid provoking sweeping Israeli military action.

The militant group’s leadership apparently doesn’t want to be held responsible for increased suffering in Gaza, where 80 percent of the population relies on U.N. food handouts for basic sustenance. Gazans have been unable to rebuild after the Israeli offensive that left large swaths of the seaside territory in ruins because of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade that keeps out building materials.

Israel, for its part, has an interest in keeping tensions in check so its southern communities can live peacefully. New violence in Gaza could also intensify world criticism against Israel as it tries to fend off war crimes allegations from its Gaza offensive and to ease frictions with the Obama administration over settlement construction…

The Israeli military said in a statement that nearly 20 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip in March, including one that killed a Thai farm worker. Overall, more than 40 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel since the beginning of the year, according to the military’s count.

Hamas has not claimed responsibility for any rockets for more than a year. Most of the recent rockets have been claimed by groups considered more radical than Hamas who accuse Gaza’s rulers of having gone soft on armed confrontation with Israel.

Hamas, did, however, get involved in gunbattles with Israeli forces last week that were the fiercest since the Israeli war in Gaza ended in January 2009. Two soldiers and one Palestinian civilian died in those clashes.

Hamas officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not articulating official policy, said the group did not mean to get involved in those battles but found itself forced to do so once the fighting started in order to maintain its standing in Gaza.

Israel holds Hamas solely responsible for maintaining peace and quiet in the Gaza Strip. In its statement Friday, the military vowed “to operate firmly against anyone who uses terror against it.”