GAZA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- A senior leader of the Islamic Jihad(Holy War) said on Sunday that the group had no plan to halt rocket attacks on Israel, denying earlier reports on a one-week unilateral truce.

    Khaled al-Batash told reporters that the group would not halt attacks on Israel as long as the Jewish state continued aggressions against the Palestinian people.

    The leader also defended retaliations for Israeli attacks as Palestinian people's right.

    Earlier in the day, a spokesman for Saraya al-Quds, an armed wing of Jihad, announced a one-week unilateral truce with Israel. The spokesman said that his group would refrain from launching homemade rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israel to avoid civilian casualties in ongoing Israeli military actions.

    Meanwhile, he also urged Israel to stop attacks, vowing to renew rocket attacks if Israel defiantly continued aggressions. Israel has stepped up military operations over the weekend as about 15 Palestinians, most of them militants, have been killed since Friday.

    Israel said that the actions were targeting rocket launching pads in the Gaza Strip in response to intensified Palestinian militant rocket attacks.

    The Islamic Jihad, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, has been behind many of the rocket attacks on Israeli targets. Enditem