Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace bloc, on Thursday condemned Israel’s assassination of five Palestinian activists on Wednesday and said “Israel does not want a ceasefire but a flare-up.”

The first Palestinian was killed in the morning, after which Islamic Jihad fired two rockets into Israel. Had an Israeli undercover unit not killed four more Palestinians in the West Bank town of Bethlehem that evening, this exchange, which cost no lives, might have been ignored.

Overnight, Islamic Jihad rocketeers fired a dozen missiles into Israel, and Israel retaliated with an air raid on northern Gaza, perpetuating the cycle of violence it reactivated with the West Bank assassinations.

The Israeli covert operation took place only a few hours after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said he is waiting for Israel to reply to a ceasefire proposal relayed to the Israeli government by Egypt. Haniyeh said the ceasefire must be reciprocal, comprehensive and simultaneous and must apply to Gaza and the West Bank.

“There must be a commitment by Israel to halt its aggression against our people, including assassinations, killings and raids. They must lift the siege and reopen the crossings between Israel and Egypt,” he said.
“The ball is in Israel’s court,” he remarked.

Moreover, Gush Shalom said those who sent the assasins to carry out liquidations knew what they were doing — an act of provocation that might jeopardise a possible ceasefire and calm.

The peace bloc also accused the Israeli government of carrying out a “wanton, completely irresponsible act, which might return the inhabitants of Sderot, Ashkelon and Gaza back into the hell from which they momentarily escaped.”

Last Monday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is a party to the Egyptian-brokered negotiations for a ceasefire, told Jordanian journalists that a “senior figure in the Israeli government is undermining the negotiations for internal reasons and because of personal hostility to me.”

The figure was later identified as Defence Minister Ehud Barak, the hawkish head of the Labour Party who seeks to topple Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and take over the top job. Barak said on Thursday that Israel will continue to kill wanted Palestinians, thereby rejecting the Hamas proposal, while other defense spokespersons said they expected the week long period of restraint to end soon.