DAY TWO OF THE "TRUCE"

Militants Attack Gaza Settlements Despite Truce.
GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen rained mortar and rocket fire into Israeli settlements in Gaza on Thursday despite new President Mahmoud Abbas’s formal truce declaration at a summit that revived Middle East peace hopes.

Political fallout from the barrage came swiftly, with Israel postponing security coordination talks with the Palestinians scheduled as a follow-up to Tuesday’s groundbreaking meeting between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Plans for Abbas and Sharon to meet again in about a week at Sharon’s desert ranch were apparently unaffected.

Hamas militants said the attacks were to avenge the killing of a Palestinian man by Israeli army gunfire from a settlement the day before. Soldiers said they had fired at suspected infiltrators. Palestinians said the man was a civilian walking near his home.

Hamas, which with other militant groups had maintained a tacit truce for weeks to give Abbas a chance to start negotiating for a state, insisted they were not defying him with the mortar salvoes but only responding to Israeli “aggression.”

ABU MAZEN WAS QUICK TO DISCIPLINE THE USUAL SUSPECTS. MEANWHILE, SHARON RESPONDED BY CONSIDERING FREEING PALESTINIAN PRISONERS WHO HAVE MURDERED ISRAELIS.

Sharon said Abbas stressed during their meeting in Egypt that the release of long-serving prisoners is a top priority.

“He (Abbas) told me simply that it is a major problem,” Sharon told the Haaretz daily. In the past, Israel refused to release those involved in deadly attacks.

A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Sharon would consider the release of prisoners “with blood on their hands” on a case by case basis.

The newspaper quoted Sharon as saying he told Abbas that if the Gaza withdrawal proceeds smoothly, he would release larger numbers of Palestinians involved in attacks.