US warns Palestinians not to abandon truce with Israel

The armed wing of the movement Hamas earlier Tuesday declared its five-month truce with Israel over after Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in a series of raids over the weekend.

The group, which the US and Europe consider terrorists, quickly fired a salvo of mortars and homemade rockets into southern Israel on Tuesday, the anniversary of the Jewish state's creation.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack questioned the impact of the Hamas announcement, saying that the militant Islamist group had continued to fire rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip despite the ceasefire.

"Whatever the arrangements for a so-called truce might have been, the real issue remains that the Palestinian people need to decide whether or not they want to realize a Palestinian state," he told reporters.

The pathway for Palestine is via the negotiating table, not through the use of violence or support for violence or terror," he said.

The United States has rejected a Palestinian government formed last month between Hamas and the US-backed Fatah party of President Mahmud Abbas because of Hamas' refusal to formally recognize Israel and renounce violence.

Under the terms of the truce announced last November, Israel's army withdrew troops from the Gaza Strip in return for an undertaking by militant groups to halt rocket fire into Israel.

The truce largely held, but not all groups signed up to it on the Palestinian side and some rocket fire against Israel continued.

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