By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel launched a new strike on the Gaza Strip and arrested over 200 suspected militants in a massive sweep in the West Bank on Sunday after warning Palestinians of a crushing response to rocket attacks from Gaza.
The worst surge of violence since Israel’s pullout from Gaza on September 12 after 38 years of occupation put pressure on a shaky cease-fire and on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as he tried to beat off a rightist leadership challenge over the withdrawal.
A helicopter fired two missiles in northern Gaza early on Sunday. A military source said the missiles targeted buildings used by militants. There were no immediate reports of casualties a day after similar strikes killed two militants.
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
In the West Bank, Israeli troops arrested 207 suspected Islamic militants in the toughest crackdown for months. Among those held were Hamas leaders Hassan Youssef and Mohammed Ghazal.
An Israeli army general said the arrests were among measures chosen to discourage Palestinian rocket fire.
Sharon’s inner cabinet also agreed to resume assassinations of militant leaders, suspended since a February truce, and gave an unprecedented green light for the use of artillery to stop rocket salvoes.
"We have taken the liberty to use all weapons in order to remove this threat," said Major-General Israel Ziv. "This operation is not limited in time."
Urging the United States to restrain Israel, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the attacks and arrests "lead in one direction and that is to the collapse of the cease-fire".
The latest spiral of violence began when a blast killed 15 people at a Hamas rally in Gaza on Friday.
Hamas blamed Israel and militants fired at least 40 rockets into the Jewish state in response, though Israel denied responsibility and the Palestinian Authority said it appeared to be an accident caused by Hamas members carrying explosives.
VENGEANCE CALLS
After Israeli helicopters hit Gaza, the military wing of Hamas said it was "time to strike with all our might".
Hamas has so far largely abided by a truce Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed with Israel in February and which helped smooth the Israeli pullout from Gaza.
Palestinian officials condemned "Israeli aggression", but Abbas also strongly criticised militants for keeping explosives in built-up areas, calling their actions a "massacre".
The violence could have an impact when Sharon battles on Sunday to hold on to the leadership of his ruling Likud party in a showdown triggered by rightist rival Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to the Gaza pullout.
Netanyahu opposed the Gaza withdrawal and said that it would bring more violence rather than meaning the "disengagement" from conflict that Sharon said he sought.
The vote by Likud’s more than 3,000 central committee members on Monday could turn Israeli politics on its head, and prompt Sharon to leave the party and form a new centrist alliance.
Opinion polls show the outcome is too close to call, although Netanyahu -- who quit as Sharon’s finance minister in August over Gaza -- has a slight lead among central committee members in the run-up to the vote.
The bloodshed is also a major challenge for Abbas, who has shied away from disarming militant groups such as Hamas -- an Israeli condition for talks on Palestinian statehood -- because of fears it could lead to civil war.
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah)
