The government's decision could lead to a collapse of the fragile cease-fire. That is why military and civilian officials stressed the military would target only the militants actively involved in the launching. The officials hoped the overall cease-fire would then hold.

The cease-fire went into effect on Nov. 26. By Wednesday morning Gazan militants launched 66 rockets of which 52 hit Israel. Three more rockets were fired later in the day. At least one hit Israel but caused neither damage nor injuries, the army reported.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters that sometimes the army spotted preparations for attacks.

By refraining from hitting the attackers, "We are exposing Israeli citizens (to those rockets)," she noted.

Usually the Qassams caused little damage and until Tuesday night only one slight injury.

Tuesday night two teenagers were severely injured when a rocket hit the town of Sderot and the government was under increased pressure to do something.

In the past month rockets were fired also towards the town of Ashkelon. Israel has strategic installations between Gaza and Ashkelon including a power plant and fuel storage area.

The Israelis were in a catch. On the one hand, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas opposes violence and the Islamic Hamas has been adhering to the cease-fire.

The head of the Shabak security service, Yuval Diskin Sunday told the Cabinet that the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades affiliated (but not necessarily obeying) Fatah, the Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance committees were doing the fighting.

Abbas and the security forces affiliated with his Fatah Party cannot enforce their will in the chaotic Gaza Strip, Diskin reported. Hamas has the military capability to stop the militants but as a matter of principle will not act against another resistance group. It never tried to enforce its rule against shooters or people planning attacks, Diskin noted.

In many respects the cease-fire is far from being a total failure. In the month of heavy fighting, before the cease-fire agreement, Palestinians launched 240 rockets, Diskin noted.

However a military source told UPI that if one excludes the intensive fighting that raged then, and around the time that Cpl. Gilad Shalit was abducted, Israel is back at the old ratio of one to two rocket attacks per day.

Olmert's government does not want to end the cease-fire. It has no cost-effective method of intercepting Qassam attacks and does not want to expose its citizens to them again.

Nor does it want to stop the process that has been unfolding in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israelis have been hoping that Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, would crack down on militants and curb Hamas. That has become even more important now that Iran is deepening its involvement, training Hamas militants and providing Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh with $35 million out of $250 it reportedly promised.

In the latest Palestinian infighting Fatah has not cracked. Olmert told the Cabinet Abbas was showing determination, courage and one should congratulate that.

So Olmert does not want to initiate a move that would prompt Palestinians to halt their confrontation and unite against Israel.

"An Israeli response that would extricate them from their internal feud into a joint fight against Israel is not something I have to encourage," a source very well aware of Sunday's Cabinet deliberations quoted Olmert as having said.

The source noted that Diskin predicted Hamas would keep the calm unless it would find itself with its back to the wall because of an escalation with Israel. Hence Wednesday's instruction to the security forces, "To take pinpointed action against the launching cells," the Prime Minister's Office reported.

"Simultaneously, Israel will continue to preserve the cease-fire and will act vis-��-vis the Palestinian Authority in order for them to take immediate action to stop the shooting of Qassams," the statement added.

A military source told United Press International the goal is, "to focus on those who shoot, who are planning to shoot."

It is not a resumption of targeted killings. Israel is not about to bomb the workshops where rockets are built or stored, and no large-scale ground invasion is imminent.

Livni said that as long as Israel will proceed "cautiously... attacking a squad of launchers, there is no reason for a deterioration."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, standing beside her at a joint press conference, criticized the rocket attacks that, he said, complicate matters. However, he added, he hoped Israel will adhere to its policy of restraint.

Meanwhile the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades threatened to retaliate Israeli attacks, the Ma'an news agency reported.

The Islamic Jihad said that "Shelling the Israeli settlements next to the Gaza Strip will continue and increase as long as Israel commits crimes, killings and carrying out collective punishments against the Palestinian people," the Ramatan news agency said. The Islamic Jihad wants the cease-fire to apply to the West Bank as well.

Hamas warned that, "If Olmert carried out his threat then the calm will be over."

Hamas' spokesman Fawzi Barhum, said they would not let Israel divide the Palestinian ranks by targeting a certain faction. Targeting a Palestinian child or commander would mean targeting all Palestinians, Barhum warned.

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