No truce with Gazan militants: Israeli PM

Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Likud faction on Monday that there was no truce with Gazan militants, after another rocket was launched into southern Israel.“There is no truce, there are no negotiations, and the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) continues to operate. Every time that anyone will think and attempt to disturb the peace of the residents of the south, we will operate fiercely as it was on Saturday, and I tell you, even harsher,” Netanyahu said.Early on Monday, Egyptian officials said they were able to get both sides to agree to a ceasefire to end a five-day flare-up in violence between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip in which a dozen Palestinian gunmen and an Israeli civilian were killed.The border has been largely quiet since midnight when Israel, saying it had targeted a rocket-firing squad, killed two militants with an air strike into southern Gaza. However, around 1,330gmt, a rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip in the general direction of the city of Ashkelon, causing no casualties or damage.Most of the rocket firing from Gaza was carried out by the Islamic Jihad group, which suffered the most casualties, while the territory’s Hamas rulers held their fire. Islamic Jihad has close ties with Iran and has chafed at the rule of rival Hamas.The violence began when residents from the suburbs south of Tel Aviv were woken up on Wednesday night by sirens, normally heard in towns and villages closer to the Gaza Strip.The alert was triggered by what Israeli security sources said was an upgraded long-range Grad rocket that landed harmlessly near the Israeli port city of Ashdod.Israel launched an air strike on Saturday that killed five top Islamic Jihad militants in a Gaza training camp.