Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations    

    JERUSALEM, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday warned that his country will make forceful response if Palestinian militants continue to violate the Gaza Strip ceasefire.

    Israel has shown some patience with the ceasefire violations, while this should not be perceived as weakness, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted him as saying at a conference.

    "Should the lull not be maintained, we will respond with full force," he was quoted as saying. "Nobody will shy away from the need to retaliate harshly."

    Since an Egypt-brokered Israeli-Palestinian truce in the coastal Strip went into effect on June 19, attacks from both sides have repeatedly challenged the shaky deal.

    The Jewish state re-closed its border crossings with the Hamas-ruled enclave earlier in the day, in response to rocket attacks from northern Gaza against south Israel Monday evening, an operation Hamas denied.