Israel considers possible cease-fire as Palestinian death toll nears 200
July 15, – Palestinian militants fired rockets at Israel on Tuesday after it agreed to an Egyptian proposal to end the week-old Gaza conflict, and a Hamas leader said the Islamist group was still undecided on whether to accept the ceasefire.
In one week the Israeli raids have left 188 dead and over 1,300 injured. Palestinian hospital sources say that 25% of those killed are children; The UN says that two-thirds of those killed were civilians. From the Israeli side, in one week Hamas fired at least 800 rockets, causing widespread damage and wounding four Israelis, some seriously.
Under the terms of the blueprint announced by Egypt – whose military-backed government has been at odds with Hamas – a mutual “de-escalation” of fighting was to begin at 9 a.m. (2 a.m. EDT), with hostilities ceasing within 12 hours.
Rocket salvoes were fired at Israel after 9 a.m. and live television showed the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepting several projectiles over the port city of Ashdod, where a factory was hit. Emergency services said no one was hurt.
Sirens sounded in other parts of southern Israel after what Channel Two television reported had been volleys of at least 10 rockets.
Israel said it had halted its attacks in the Gaza Strip but would respond strongly if Palestinian strikes persisted.
Palestinian militants fired rockets at Israel on Tuesday after it agreed to an Egyptian proposal to end the week-old Gaza conflict, and a Hamas leader said the Islamist group was still undecided on whether to accept the ceasefire.
Under the terms of the blueprint announced by Egypt – whose military-backed government has been at odds with Hamas – a mutual “de-escalation” of fighting was to begin at 9 a.m. (2 a.m. EDT), with hostilities ceasing within 12 hours.
Rocket salvoes were fired at Israel after 9 a.m. and live television showed the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepting several projectiles over the port city of Ashdod, where a factory was hit. Emergency services said no one was hurt.
Sirens sounded in other parts of southern Israel after what Channel Two television reported had been volleys of at least 10 rockets.
Israel said it had halted its attacks in the Gaza Strip but would respond strongly if Palestinian strikes persisted.
Palestinian militants fired rockets at Israel on Tuesday after it agreed to an Egyptian proposal to end the week-old Gaza conflict, and a Hamas leader said the Islamist group was still undecided on whether to accept the ceasefire.
Under the terms of the blueprint announced by Egypt – whose military-backed government has been at odds with Hamas – a mutual “de-escalation” of fighting was to begin at 9 a.m. (2 a.m. EDT), with hostilities ceasing within 12 hours.
Rocket salvoes were fired at Israel after 9 a.m. and live television showed the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepting several projectiles over the port city of Ashdod, where a factory was hit. Emergency services said no one was hurt.
Sirens sounded in other parts of southern Israel after what Channel Two television reported had been volleys of at least 10 rockets.
Israel said it had halted its attacks in the Gaza Strip but would respond strongly if Palestinian strikes persisted.
Under the ceasefire proposal announced by Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, high-level delegations from Israel and the Palestinian factions would hold separate talks in Cairo within 48 hours to consolidate the ceasefire with “confidence-building measures”.
The surge in hostilities over the past week was prompted by the murder last month of three Jewish seminary students in the occupied West Bank and the revenge killing on July 2 of a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem. Israel said on Monday three Jews in police custody had confessed to killing the Palestinian.
Hamas leaders have said a ceasefire must include an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza and a recommitment to a truce reached in an eight-day war there in 2012. Hamas also wants Egypt to ease restrictions at its Rafah crossing with Gaza imposed after the military toppled Islamist president Mohamed Mursi last July.
The Egyptian proposal made no mention of Rafah or when restrictions might be eased. It said only that “crossings shall be opened and the movement of persons and goods through (them) shall be facilitated once the security situation becomes stable on the ground”.
Hamas has faced a cash crisis and Gaza’s economic hardship has deepened as a result of Egypt’s destruction of cross-border smuggling tunnels. Cairo accuses Hamas of aiding anti-government Islamist militants in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, an allegation the Palestinian group denies.
Hamas has said it also wants the release of hundreds of its activists arrested in the West Bank while Israel searched for the three missing teens. The detainees include more than 50 Hamas men freed from Israeli jails in a 2011 prisoner exchange.
The proposed truce made no mention of the detainees in stipulating that “other issues, including security issues, shall be discussed with the sides”.
The Arab League said in a statement it welcomed the Egyptian initiative “to protect the lives of the innocent”. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who reached an agreement with Hamas in April that led to the formation of a unity government last month, urged acceptance of the proposal, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
Press journalist for hromedia – Khizer Hayat reports.
Category: Arab uprising
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