Gaza/Tel Aviv, Nov 26 (DPA) A long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian truce in the Gaza Strip came into effect early Sunday - and was violated almost immediately when rockets landed in southern Israel.
Apart from the morning missiles, there were no other reported incidents and as the truce took a tenuous hold, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered his security chiefs to make sure it was obeyed.
Dozens of Palestinian policemen took up positions in the northern Strip in the late afternoon to prevent militants from firing more rockets at Israel.
At the same time, the Hamas-led government said it would investigate the morning's rocket-launchings, which began about an hour after the ceasefire started at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT).
Although Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said all factions would obey the truce, the military wing of his Hamas movement, and the Islamic Jihad said they had fired the five rockets at the town of Sderot, adjacent to the Gaza Strip.
'We claim responsibility for launching rockets as a natural reaction to what the Zionist occupation is doing, including incursions, assassinations and arrests in the West Bank,' a leaflet issued by the Islamic Jihad said.
'We reiterate that there is no space to speak about a truce amid the continuation of the Zionist aggression on all our territories,' the leaflet went on.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the Israel Defence Force (IDF) to show restraint despite the rocket-launching, and said he hoped a similar truce would also come into effect in the West Bank.
'Even though there are still violations on the other side, I have ordered the troops to show restraint and to give the truce a chance,' he said.
'We hope the ceasefire will take hold in (the West Bank),' he continued. 'At the moment it is not implemented there. If they show responsibility and good will, all this will lead to the commencement of negotiations that are serious, real and open-hearted between us and the Palestinian Authority.'
However, Defence Minister Amir Peretz said the morning's rocket attacks were a breach of the ceasefire agreement, and Israel would react harshly to every attack.
'I hope the Palestinians rein in all the groups. We have a common interest in a ceasefire,' Education Minister Yuli Tamir said while visiting a school in Sderot.
The ceasefire had came into effect at 6 a.m. Sunday morning, after Abbas told Olmert that the Palestinian militant groups were committed to stop launching rockets at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Israel, for its part, said it would pull its troops out of those areas of the Gaza Strip where they had been operating in a bid to stop the rockets.
'The responsibility and goodwill may lead to the beginning of serious, open and direct negotiations between us and the Palestinians,' Olmert said Sunday.
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