Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

    GAZA, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian factions on Saturday argued that they have the right to respond to Israeli violations of an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire which took hold in the Gaza Strip since June 19.

    The argument intensified after Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, criticized two other groups for firing rockets into Israel despite the calmness.

    A small armed group the Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, fired the rockets in three occasions over the past days to retaliate for an Israeli military action in the West Bank though the latter territory is out of the ceasefire deal.

    Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, said "the Israeli occupation violates the lull on daily basis" and so his movement "preserves the right to retaliate for all Israeli crimes regardless where they take place."

    Moreover, al-Batsh said his movement "calls on everyone to fight against the occupation." Referring to Hamas demands that the factions should consult before responding to the violation, al-Batsh said there were Israeli violations "require immediate retaliation without coordinating the responses with Hamas."

    The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a group that supports Hamas, said the factions can respond to the Israeli violations of the deal "but through a national consensus."

    According to the ceasefire deal, Israel has to open commercial crossing points into Gaza during the first ten days of the six-month lull. The rocket attacks, which violated the deal, blocked the move and Israel decided to keep the crossings closed.