Hamas's armed wing declared an end to a five-month-old Gaza ceasefire today by firing rockets into Israel, but the Palestinian government led by the Islamist group called for the shaky truce to be restored.
Hamas's armed wing said it fired the rockets from the Gaza Strip in response to the killing of nine Palestinians over the weekend by Israeli forces.
There was no immediate Israeli government response to the rocket fire, which caused minor damage but no injuries, as the Jewish state celebrated its Independence Day.
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert will meet with his senior security advisers on Wednesday to consider their options, Israel Radio reported. Army sources told the Haaretz newspaper that any Israeli military response would be limited.
"There is no calm between us and the (Israeli) occupation. The occupation ended the calm," Abu Ubaida, spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said after the group resumed rocket fire for the first time since the November truce took hold.
But the Hamas-led Palestinian government later called for the ceasefire to remain in place.
"The government is interested to keep the ceasefire and the calm and we are trying, through consultation and discussion with the Palestinian factions, to take a position in order to protect our people," government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said.
Observers say there has been a debate within the Hamas leadership over whether the group has to take a harder line towards Israel, but the Islamist group denies any divisions.
Egypt condemned Israeli forces for killing the nine Palestinians, including five militants, over the weekend. Egypt also called on the Palestinians to refrain from firing rockets into Israel, saying that would give the Jewish state "an excuse" to attack.
An Israeli army spokesman said at least six rockets were fired at Israel today, two of which landed near a southern Israeli town. There were no reports of casualties.
Israeli helicopter gunships opened fire near the border fence in southern Gaza in an attempt to stop the rocket fire.
Hamas, which won a parliamentary election last year, has largely abided by the ceasefire, but other groups have continued to shoot makeshift rockets into Israel.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh warned today that Hamas would reassess its strategy in one to two months if Western sanctions were not lifted on the unity government he formed with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction last month.