(Adds Egyptian foreign minister's comments) By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Israel said on Wednesday it would resume attacks against Palestinian militants who fire rockets from the Gaza Strip but insisted it remained committed to a month-old ceasefire in the territory. In a statement that appeared to rule out a major military offensive in Gaza, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said: "A directive has been given to the defence establishment to take pinpoint action against rocket-launching squads." The governing Palestinian Hamas movement said "there is a risk the calm will be blown away by the wind" if Israel resumes what the Islamic militant group termed assassinations. "There has been almost complete (Israeli) restraint," Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said on Israel Radio. "We have changed this policy." Olmert has come under growing public criticism for failing to retaliate for more than 60 such attacks from the Gaza Strip since the Nov. 26 truce. But under international pressure to keep the ceasefire alive, and ahead of a Jan. 4 meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Olmert had not been expected by Israeli political commentators to order widescale military action that might weaken Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, speaking after talks with Olmert in Jerusalem, said the summit between the Israeli leader and Mubarak in Egypt next Thursday would be aimed at fostering a "viable peace process" and building Israeli-Palestinian trust. Israel is keen to bolster the moderate Abbas who has called for early Palestinian elections to try to end a power struggle between his Fatah movement and the governing Hamas group. Just hours after the Israeli announcement, Islamic Jihad fired a rocket into southern Israel, causing no casualties. Militants behind rocket strikes say they are retaliating for Israel's continued pursuit of wanted Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where a ceasefire is not in effect. Israel has killed 15 Palestinians since the Gaza truce began, all but one in the West Bank. About half were gunmen. Two Israelis, both aged 14, were seriously wounded by a Qassam rocket on Tuesday. "Israel will continue to maintain the ceasefire and work with the Palestinian Authority so that immediate steps are taken to halt the Qassam firings," Olmert's office said in the statement after he held consultations with security chiefs. HAMAS BACKS TRUCE Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led government, also voiced support for the truce. "We believe this agreement is still alive and both sides should respect it," Hamad said in Gaza. But Abu Ahmed, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, said Israel's decision to target rocket squads "will not stop us from continuing our resistance". He said the truce should be extended to the West Bank otherwise residents of Ashkelon and Sderot, two southern cities that have hit by rockets from Gaza, "will never feel secure". Responding to the Israeli announcement, Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator and Abbas adviser, said maintaining the truce was in the Palestinian national interest. "I also urge Israel to refrain from attacking the Palestinians and to be committed to the ceasefire," he said. "Our past experience taught us that violence begets violence and bullets beget bullets." Olmert and Abbas held long-awaited talks last Saturday, a meeting that ended with an Israeli promise to release $100 million in withheld tax revenues to the moderate leader, bypassing the Hamas-led government. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah)
