JERUSALEM, April 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday condemned Palestinian militants' mortar and Qassam rocket shelling against Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, local newspaper Ha'aretz reported on its online edition.

      Sharon was quoted as saying that the barrage is "a flagrant violation" of the understandings reached between the two sides in February in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Roughly 80 mortar shells hit the Gush Katif settlements in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday and Sunday, resulting in damage butno injuries. A mare in a zoo at the Neve Dekalim settlement was killed.

    The flurry of mortar shell attacks came shortly after Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinian teenage boys in the town of Rafah near the borders between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt. Speaking to reporters on his plane en route to the United States, Sharon said he will raise the shelling during Monday's meeting with US President George W. Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

    Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz called Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday and told him Israel would not accept an escalation inviolence.

    Mofaz asked Abbas to deploy forces in the Gaza Strip to prevent further shelling.

    Sharon and Abbas formally declared an end to more than four years of violence at their February summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. Weeks later, Abbas reached a cease-fire agreement with the militant groups. Enditem