Gaza truce shaken by rocket fire and killings

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired several rockets into Israel on Tuesday, breaching a five-day-old ceasefire after Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant leader in the occupied West Bank.

The Islamic Jihad salvo lightly wounded two residents of an Israeli border town and overshadowed a meeting of world powers in Berlin on ways to shore up Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as he pursues peace talks with the Jewish state.

"This is a blatant violation of the calm, and we will weigh options," a aide quoted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying after the rockets struck Sderot.

Hamas, Abbas's Islamist rival which rules Gaza, condemned the West Bank raid but urged fellow factions to hold fire.

"Hamas is keen to maintain the calm," Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said.

Fresh Gaza bloodshed could hurt Olmert's bid to return Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held by Hamas, with Cairo's help.

Olmert is also weak at home due to a corruption scandal that may force him from office. The affair has cracked his coalition government, whose junior partner, the Labour party, pledged to back an opposition bill on Wednesday for dissolving parliament.

Though the legislation to hold early elections would require further ratification to take effect, Israeli media said members of Olmert's Kadima party were trying to coax Labour's leader, Defence Minister Ehud Barak, into withdrawing support. Olmert has also threatened to fire Labour should it vote against him.