Hamas asks militants to prepare for clas

"Our patience regarding the Zionists' breaches of the truce will not last long," the statement said. "Our maintaining the ceasefire does not mean that we will allow those terrorists and killers to commit attacks against our people."

Hamas and other leading militant groups spearheading the 34-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood declared the truce, vital to a US-backed peace plan, on June 29.

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The groups pinned the truce's success on Israel's release of all 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in its jails and a halt to the killing of militants.

Israel has said it will free some 440 prisoners later this week. The Palestinians say this is insufficient.

"We appeal to all the national and Islamic forces to prepare themselves for a confrontation of the arrogance of that criminal enemy that denied the right of freedom for our hero prisoners," said the Hamas statement.

The Hamas call followed a West Bank shooting attack on Jewish settlers just outside Jerusalem that wounded four people, and the killing of a Palestinian by Israeli soldiers near the West Bank city of Tulkarm.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the West Bank shooting.