On Friday morning, Gaza militants fired 10 mortars and at least one Qassam rocket into southern Israel.

Since Israel ended its 22-day military offensive in Gaza and warned Hamas that it would face punishing retaliation if even one rocket was fired, Palestinian militants have fired at least 60 rockets and mortars into southern Israel. 

In one videotaped attack, Gaza militants hit an Israeli border patrol with a roadside bomb, killing one.

Israel has responded with very limited air strikes aimed at low-level fighters and the network of smuggler tunnels running under the Gaza-Egypt border.

Meanwhile, Egyptian-mediated talks about a new Israel-Hamas truce and release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit (who could mark 1,000 days in captivity next month), have again crumbled.

Egyptian officials have voiced their "indignation" over what they see as Israeli PM Ehud Olmert pulling the rug out from under the fragile talks by demanding that Shalit be released before Israel will agree to open its borders with Gaza to allow a normal flow of goods and supplies into the Hamas-controlled territory.

Egypt reacted to the Israeli government move by withdrawing a trade delegation from Israel. Israeli negotiator Amos Gilad reportedly cancelled his latest trip to Cairo to discuss the negotiations.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner challenged Israel's Shalit-cease fire linkage as unproductive.

And, in one of the more remarkable criticisms, Gilad was quoted at length attacking Israel's leaders this week in Israel's Maariv newspaper.

"I don’t understand what it is that they’re trying to do," Gilad was quoted in Maariv as saying. "To insult the Egyptians? We’ve already insulted them. It’s madness. It’s simply madness. Egypt has remained almost our last ally here. For what? After all, it’s damaging to national security. Our very essence here is a choice between bad alternatives to worse ones and even worse ones. The Egyptians have shown extraordinary courage. They’ve given us maneuvering room, they’re trying to mediate, they’re investing efforts, they’re showing goodwill of a kind they’ve never shown before. So it’s true that on the ground that comes out as 60% and not 100%... So what are we going to do? Mubarak has been fair and courageous—the Rafah border crossing is closed, Hamas is under siege. What are we thinking? That they work for us? That they’re a subordinate unit of ours? We’re talking about a country with 85 million citizens, a country that almost destroyed us in 1948 and dealt us a blow in 1973. Look at what is happening in the region, how the lava is bubbling, how everything is in an uproar, they also have the Muslim Brotherhood, look at Jordan, look at Turkey. Do we want to lose all that?"

Gilad's criticism was extensively quoted, prompting Olmert to call the Israeli negotiator into his office for a reported tongue-lashing.

Today, Nahum Barnea, one of Israel's most respected journalistic voices, openly questioned the Gaza military campaign in Gaza.

"It appears, after all, after the interviews, the briefings and the special broadcasts, after the great praise of the military affairs correspondents and the wars over credit between Barak and Livni, that the IDF operation in Gaza was not such a great success, and perhaps it was not a success at all," Barnea wrote in today's Yedioth Ahronoth.

"The goal was to prevent arms smuggling, and the smuggling continues," Barnea writes. "According to information given to the security cabinet ministers this week, all types of weapons, including Grad rockets, are currently arriving in Gaza in a growing stream through the tunnels.

"The goal was to stop the fire, but the fire continues—albeit, for the meantime, in small numbers and with negligible damage.

"The goal was to impose an improved tahdia (cease fire) on Hamas, but the talks between Egypt and Hamas amount to the same tahdia, and some say, worse [than its predecessor].

"The goal was to accelerate the negotiations on Gilad Shalit’s return, but Hamas has not budged a millimeter.

"We restored the deterrence, everyone said. More precisely, we all said it, from the residents of Sderot and Ashkelon to the writer of these lines, but did not express more than a heartfelt wish. Hassan Nasrallah saw the devastation that the IDF left behind in Lebanon and decided that it would be best for him to hold his fire. Khaled Mashal saw from Damascus the devastation in Gaza, the dead, the bereavement, and was unmoved. Perhaps he is more distant, perhaps he is more obtuse, perhaps he is more dependent on Iran.

"In any case, we have not deterred Hamas. We may have only deterred ourselves.

"A senior security official told me this week that a limited operation styled after Operation Cast Lead may be the most that the world will permit us to do in Gaza. If we do not open the crossings for Hamas of our own volition, a day may come when we will be forced to open the crossings.

"Something appears to have gone awry in the cost-benefit calculation of Israeli military operations. The Olmert government scored several impressive successes in covert operations. On the two occasions that it launched a large-scale, open operation, the investment was great, perhaps too great, and the outcome questionable..."

(AP photo/Sebastian Scheiner: Israelis demonstrate for Gilad Shalit's release)