Factions to continue shelling Israel until achieving mutual ceasefire

The Palestinian factions will continue firing rockets into Israel until the Jewish state accepts a mutual ceasefire and apply it to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, a faction representative said on Wednesday.

"This decision was taken and all the factions have agreed on it," said Ibraheem Abu al-Naja, secretary-general of the Higher Committee for Palestinian Islamic and National factions.

"We will not allow Israel to extort us... If it wants truce, it must be mutual and coincident," Abu al-Naja told a news conference after the factions met President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza city.

Abu al-Naja added that the representatives of the factions will convey their final stance to Abbas after consulting their higher leaders.

Abbas met with representatives of five factions on Wednesday evening to talk about the rocket attacks into Israel and the ensuing Israeli offensive.

The meeting was held at Abbas' office in Gaza and Prime Minister Ismail Haneya of Hamas did not attend it, said Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for Haneya.

In the afternoon, Abbas met Haneya behind closed doors for the second time in 24 hours to discuss the Israeli offensive and to reinforce the state of calmness between Hamas and Fatah after a wave of deadly clashes.

"Abbas wants the home-made rockets to be stopped and he wants ceasefire so he will meet the factions to discuss this issue with them," Hamad said before Abbas met the faction representatives.

Asked if Abbas has proposed to halt Palestinian rocket attacks into Israel unilaterally, Hamad answered that he can not comment on this point.

Meanwhile, three Palestinian factions have claimed responsibility for launching rockets into southern Israel while their leaders were meeting President Abbas.

In separated statements sent to the press, Ezz el-Deen al- Qassam Brigades of Hamas said its militants have launched two rockets into Sderot town from northern Gaza Strip.

Moreover, al-Qassam Brigades added it has ordered all its members "to strike the enemy everywhere in Palestine." It did not elaborate.

In addition, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement also fired three rockets on the same town whose residents demand the Israeli government to put an end to the Palestinian rocket attacks.

Following the home-made rocket attacks, Israeli tanks have shelled southern Gaza Strip areas, wounding at least one Palestinian.

The official news agency of Wafa reported that the projectiles have landed around the closed Gaza airport in Rafah town.

Dr. Ali Mussa, director of Abu Yousef al-Najar hospital in Rafah, said a man in his late twenties arrived at the hospital with "serious wounds due to shrapnel that hit his body."

But other sources close to Hamas said the Hams member was injured when he mishandled a mortar shell that went off.