GAZA CITY, Sept 27, 2005 (IslamONline.net & News Agencies) – Though Palestinian resistance factions reaffirmed Tuesday, September 27, abidance by a shaky truce, Israel bombarded Gaza and threatened to assassinate senior Hamas leaders.

"All factions on the steering committee have agreed to stop armed resistance operations from the Gaza Strip to protect the interests of our people," Ibrahim Abu al-Naja, the head of a committee grouping representatives of all factions, told Agence France- Presse (AFP).

Naja said the aim was to protect Palestinians from a "catastrophe", referring to incessant Israeli bombardment.

Khaled el-Baatsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, said the group "remains committed to ceasefire that we proclaimed in Cairo".

Palestinian resistance factions have been observing a de facto truce since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was elected in January, an agreement that was cemented at talks brokered by Egypt last March.

The latest escalation began when Israel assassinated three Islamic Jihad fighters on Friday, prompting the resistance movement to fire three rockets into the Israeli town of Sderot.

Shortly afterwards, Israeli warplanes bombarded a Hamas rally in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, killing 19 people and injuring dozens.

Adding insult to injury, Israel assassinated two Hamas members in a deadly air strike in Al-Zaitoun district to the south of the Strip, prompting retaliation threats from Hamas.

Mofaz dismissed the factions' pledge, saying his army would "continue to use all means necessary".

Israeli Defense Minister poured cold water on the Palestinian factions' announcement and threatened to assassinate top Hamas political leaders Mahmud Al-Zahar and Ismail Haniya.

"We will decide (what is quiet), not Mahmud Al-Zahar and not anyone else," he said, without ruling out an incursion back into Gaza or artillery fire.

"If Mahmud al-Zahar or Ismail Haniya or any of the others continue firing Qassam rockets, we will send them to the place where both Rantissi and Yassin are," Mofaz threatened.

Wheel-chaired Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, was torn into pieces on March 22, 2004, when an Israeli helicopter fired three missiles at him while he was leaving the mosque after performing dawn prayers.

His successor Abdul Aziz Al-Rantissi was assassinated by Israel on April 17, 2004, in northern Gaza.

Al-Zahar told a press conference late Sunday that his group had decided to halt attacks against Israel from Gaza Strip.

"Under our commitment to the national agreement, made in Cairo, to a cooling down period until the end of 2005, the movement announces it has stopped its operations from the Gaza Strip against the Zionist occupation".

Mofaz's comments came during a tour of Israeli troops deployed with artillery guns facing Gaza.

Israeli troops detained up to 84 Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists in the West

Bank on Tuesday, bringing to over 300 the number held over the past few days.

Further escalating the tension, Israel fired more missiles into Gaza on Tuesday and vowed no respite in its offensive.

Israeli air strikes destroyed two bridges and two buildings Israel said were used by Palestinian fighters.

Israel launched a new air strike after darkness fell on Tuesday, firing at a site in northern Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina accused Israel of trying to destroy hopes of calm following its Gaza pullout and urged the international community to rein in Israel.