The Palestinian leadership on Wednesday warned Israel against any large-scale military response to the escalating terrorist rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told a visiting European diplomat that "any new Israeli aggression would put the entire peace process in real danger." He did not address the fact that it was the Palestinians of Gaza who fired first.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat also warned against Israeli "aggression," and even blamed Israel for the increased tensions along the Gaza border.

Palestinian terrorists operating out of the Gaza Strip have fired dozens of rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel over the past two weeks.

Palestinian terrorists operating out of the Gaza Strip fired a short-range missile into southern Israel on Tuesday morning wounding a 14-year-old Israeli girl. The missile landed just outside a kindergarten in a kibbutz not far from the southern coastal town of Ashkelon.

The attack comes less than a day after Gaza-based terrorists fired 10 mortar shells into southern Israel, prompting retaliatory strikes on terrorist positions by the Israeli air force.

In other violence, an Israeli soldier narrowly escaped being stabbed by three Palestinian Arabs just north of Jerusalem on Monday.

The soldier was at a gas station outside the Jewish community of Givat Ze'ev when a car pulled up and three Arab men jumped out, one of them brandishing a large knife. The soldier quickly loaded his M-16 rifle and pointed it at his would-be attackers, who got back in their car and sped off.

Arab terrorists attacked and killed a visiting American Christian woman and badly wounded her UK-born Messianic Jewish friend in a forested area south of Jerusalem on Saturday.

Kay Wilson is a leading tour guide with Shoresh Tours, which operates under the auspices of the CMJ global ministry from the Christ Church complex in Jerusalem's Old City. Kristine Luken came to Israel with a Shoresh tour three years ago. From there she became involved win CMJ's US branch, and then went on to become adminsitrative secretary at the UK branch.The two friends decided to take a weekend hike through a forest between the southern Jerusalem suburb of Tzur Hadassah and the nearby town of Beit Shemesh.

Along the way they were approached by two young Arab men who asked for water. Wilson told Ynet that she responded in Hebrew that they did not have any extra water, but that she did not feel good about the situation. Wilson told Luken that they needed to get out of there, but it was too late. As the two women began to walk away and look at their map, the Arab men attacked. "It all happened so fast," said Wilson. "Suddenly they attacked us, and one pulled out a long knife, like a bread knife." Wilson said that as the terrorists tied her hands she was scared, but recalled that Luken became hysterical. And that's when the stabbing began." One of them turned me around and saw that I was wearing a Star of David necklace," said Wilson. "He took it off of me like a gentleman and then stabbed me 12 times." Wilson realized the knife had not hit her heart, and so pretended she was dead. As she laid on the ground, Wilson could hear her friend being stabbed, but could do nothing to help her. When she was sure the two men had gone, Wilson made a dash for the nearby highway. After walking a short distance, a group of people at a children's playground spotted her and called the police.

An overnight search was launched to find Luken, whose had apparently been dragged away by the attackers. There was widespread fear that Luken had been kidnapped. Her body was found on Sunday morning a few hundred yards from the site of the stabbing. Wilson is recovering in stable condition at Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.

DF Chief of General Staff Lt.- Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi called the situation in Gaza "fragile and explosive." Sources in the Southern Command told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas would likely prevent rocket fire deep into the Israeli home front, but continue targeting towns and IDF positions along the border.

"We have no guarantee that the situation won't deteriorate if a rocket causes a large number of casualties," Ashkenazi said during one of his final briefings to the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Ashkenazi also revealed that two weeks ago an advanced Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missile - one of the most sophisticated in the world - hit an Israeli Merkava tank and succeeded in penetrating its hull. As a result, the IDF has decided to deploy Battalion 9 of the 401st Armored Brigade along the Gaza border, since its tanks are equipped with the new Trophy active-protection anti-tank missile defense system.

Top military sources said the current round of violence was started by Hamas and was likely a result of internal pressure within the organization to renew attacks on Israel, which it hadn't undertaken since Operation Cast Lead two years ago. Hamas is still recovering from the damage it suffered during that campaign and has yet to complete the rebuilding of many of its underground tunnels and passageways on the outskirts of towns and villages in northern Gaza.

Ashkenazi said that a total of 60 Palestinian terrorists had been killed inside the Gaza Strip over the past few months in 112 Israeli attacks.