Israeli air strikes have killed as many as five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since late yesterday, prompting warnings of retaliation from the Islamic Hamas group that rules the territory.
Twenty-four rockets were fired at southern Israel today, an army spokeswoman said, in an escalation of recent bloodshed that has left as many as 15 Palestinians and one Israeli dead. The fighting comes amid a delay in the announcement of a winner in the presidential runoff election in neighboring Egypt. A candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been linked by Israel to Hamas, has claimed victory in the poll.
“Hamas wants to test how much they can get away with, on the assumption that in the coming months when the Islamic Brotherhood is in power” its fighters will be able to escape to Egyptian soil, said Jonathan Spyer, a political scientist at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel.
A 50-year-old Israeli man was wounded in the latest attacks, said the Magen David Adom emergency services. The Israeli army said it hit three rocket-launching squads and a Hamas security compound.
“Israel is sending a message that it controls Gaza,” Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, said by phone. “We ask for immediate intervention to stop this aggression that could send the whole region into a spiraling escalation of violence.”
Ordnance Explosion

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman for the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, said today’s dead included a 4-year-old boy in southeast Gaza. The army spokeswoman said Israel didn’t carry out an attack in that area and that the death was caused by the explosion of ordnance held by Palestinian militants.
The spate of violence has increased after two days of bloodshed that followed Hamas saying it would stop rocket fire if Israeli airstrikes ceased. Palestinian officials said Hamas has refrained from launching rockets at Israel since then and that the strikes were initiated by smaller militant groups in the seaside territory.
“Once again, Hamas is doing a huge disservice to its people by resorting to firing rockets on Israeli civilians, as the only political program they can come up with,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said by phone.
The al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, warned Israel in a leaflet e-mailed to reporters today that it could no longer maintain “the quiet due to the enemy aerial strikes,” adding “retaliation will come at a proper place and time.”
Border Security

Defense Minister Ehud Barak is among Israeli leaders who have voiced concerns about worsening security on the border with Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with the Jewish state more than three decades ago. They have also cited links between the Brotherhood and Hamas, which Israel, the European Union and the U.S. consider a terrorist organization.
Barak has instructed Israeli forces to continue to take steps to stop Hamas fire and prepare for a stronger response should rocketing continue, Israel Army Radio said.
A June 18 attack on Israel came from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. Israel has blamed the attack on Palestinians it said were affiliated with “Global Jihad.”
“Hamas is feeling pretty confident because it feels Israel has tried to lay down red lines and it has ignored them,” Spyer said. “Hamas has a strategic sense of wind in its sails because of the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Egyptian Election

Egypt will announce the results of its presidential election at 3 p.m. Cairo time tomorrow, the state-run Ahram Gate website reported, citing Omar Salama, a member of the election commission.
Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi claims he has beaten Ahmed Shafik, ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister. Shafik’s campaign has also declared victory.
The current unrest isn’t likely to worsen, said Akram Atallah, a political analyst from Gaza’s al-Azhar University.
“Both Hamas and Israel know very well that they won’t start an extensive battle amid the changes in the Arab world,” Atallah said by phone. “Israel doesn’t want to be involved in a war that leads to a confrontation with Egypt,and Hamas is seeking political privileges and not more escalation.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Saud Abu Ramadan in Gaza City at [email protected]; Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at [email protected]