国际英语新闻:Hamas not to renew fire soon: Israeli defense minister

JERUSALEM, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya' alon on Wednesday said that Hamas militants will not resume rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip against southern Israel in the near future.

"For the moment, the cease-fire is stable and we don't see signs or a desire to lead to an escalation," Ya'alon said in an interview with Army Radio at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv.

"Apparently, the experience they underwent was a hard one, and I hope that this deterrence will be established as much as possible, though we are ready for a situation in which this will change," Ya'alon said, in reference to the latest Gaza war.

Ya'alon estimated that Hezbollah, too, was not currently interested in an escalation with Israel in the north.

"We don't think anyone there wants or intends to escalate, but we take pains to clarify this -- hence our response yesterday to the bombs that were activated," Ya'alon said of Israeli artillery fire in response to a bombing attack by Hezbollah on Lebanon's interim border with Israel on Tuesday, in which two Israeli soldiers werewounded.

"I hope Hezbollah will be deterred and the Lebanese government, which is responsible for the area, will take the reins," he added.

However, Hezbollah's second-in-commandon Tuesdaysaid that the attack near an Israeli outpost on Mount Dov was a message that the militant group remained ready to confront Israel despite its current woes, both in neighboring Syria and at home.

"This is a message ... Even though we are busy in Syria and on the eastern front in Lebanon, our eyes remain open and our resistance is ready to confront the Israeli enemy," Sheikh Naim Qassem, the group's deputy leader, was quoted as saying on Lebanon 's OTV.