GAZA CITY – Gaza's Hamas rulers indicated Friday they were trying to keep attacks on Israel in check, in an apparent attempt to keep a recent spate of violence from spiraling into open conflict. Hamas made this known just hours after Israeli aircraft pounded multiple targets in the territory in response to the latest rocket attack on southern Israel. Three Palestinian children were wounded in one of the Israeli airstrikes, Gaza health official Moaiya Hassanain said. A statement released by the Hamas government after the aerial attacks accused Israel of an "escalation" against Gaza. But the Hamas government also said it was "making contact with the factions to safeguard internal agreement." Hamas has never explicitly criticised attacks against Israel, though top officials have said such attacks don't serve Palestinian interests right now. Friday's statement signaled the Islamic group was pushing to get the territory's other militant groups to honor this policy. Last year, Israel conducted a devastating military offensive in Gaza after years of rocket attacks. Since then, Hamas has tried to avoid provoking sweeping Israeli military action and has not claimed responsibility for any rockets for more than a year. But a string of recent Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes have ratcheted up tensions. In March, Gaza militants fired nearly 20 rockets and mortars at Israel, about half the more than 40 fired overall since the beginning of the year, according to the military's count. Israel has retaliated with strikes on 28 sites in Gaza since Jan. 1, the military said. Most of the recent militant attacks have been claimed by groups considered more radical than Hamas who accuse Gaza's ruling movement of going soft on its main rallying cry of armed confrontation with Israel. The militant group's leadership is eager to avoid being held responsible for increased suffering in Gaza, where 80 percent of the population relies on U.N. food handouts for basic sustenance. Gazans have been unable to rebuild the large swaths of the territory that were damaged or destroyed during the Israeli offensive because an Israeli and Egyptian blockade keeps out building materials.
