Consider this the first of what will undoubtedly be many Fragile Ceasefire Watches:

In the first such strike since a cease-fire went into effect in the Gaza Strip last week, Palestinian militants from the coastal territory fired a mortar shell at the western Negev late Monday night. No injuries or damage were caused. Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces troops operating in the West Bank city of Nablus killed two Palestinian militants early Tuesday morning. One of the dead was a senior Islamic Jihad militant, and the other belonged to Hamas... Troops discovered ammunition, explosives and rifles in his apartment. In a statement released from the West Bank following the raid, Islamic Jihad said that "the reprisal for this noble blood will be in the depths of the Zionist entity, God willing."

Now without peeking at your neighbors' papers, can anyone tell the class why there's a difference between Palestinian-initiated fighting in Gaza and Israeli operations in the West Bank? Besides the difference in the number of letters and stuff. It's almost like the AFP is trying to obfuscate how the Palestinians are unilaterally violating the ceasefire. To be totally honest I'm kind of surprised that they're already back to bombarding Israeli schoolchildren. I thought they'd spend at least a couple weeks honoring the ceasefire while openly violating the truce:

Smuggling into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip will not stop, the head of the territory's government, Ismail Haniya, said on Friday, threatening an already tenuous two-day-old truce with Israel. During Egyptian-mediated negotiations, Israel "wanted to force Hamas to stop what they call the smuggling of contraband across land and sea borders," Haniya told worshippers before Friday prayers. "They also said that (the release of detained Israeli soldier) Shalit must be part of the truce deal. But we have not agreed to these demands because they are unjust and go beyond the capabilities of this government," he said. Reacting to Haniya's remarks, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert underlined that the Egyptian-brokered truce explicitly stated that arms smuggling into the impoverished territory must halt.

It's a neat trick. Hamas violates their part of the truce by rearming. The only response open to the IDF - suspending the ceasefire - will get the Israelis blamed for the collapse of the whole deal. At least Israel didn't rope Egypt into this ever-so-fleeting truce. Because that would make it really complicated when the IDF has to respond to the Palestinians' drip drip drip of attacks.

References:
* Gaza truce tensely holds after mortar fire, two West Bank militants killed [Ha'aretz]
* Egypt brokering Hamas-Israel deal on long-term Gaza truce [Ha'aretz]
* Hamas says smuggling to Gaza will continue [AFP]

Previously:
* Hamas Fires Over 40 Rockets At Israeli Civilians, Kill Palestinian Baby In The Process
* Hamas Blocks Israeli Food Shipments, Intentionally Starves Gaza Civilians To Create A Humanitarian Disaster - Again!
* Ceasefire Set To Increase Hamas Popularity From Merely Overwhelming To Totally Awesome