Israel mulls truce as ceasefire brings relief
Print Edition
PALESTINIANS rushed to shops and banks yesterday during a five-hour humanitarian ceasefire that largely held, and an Israeli official said Egypt has proposed a permanent truce that would start today.
The official said senior Israeli negotiators had approved in talks in Cairo the comprehensive truce aimed at ending 10 days of warfare but the final decision rested with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet.
A spokesman for the Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza denied initial comments by the Israeli official that a full ceasefire was slated to start at 6am today.
Sirens sounded in southern Israel at 3pm, exactly at the end of the five-hour ceasefire, and the military said a rocket had been fired at the coastal city of Ashkelon.
During yesterday’s period of relative calm, the Israeli military said three mortar bombs were launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip, landing in open areas.
Israeli forces, the military added, fired mortar rounds into the Palestinian territory during the truce period after a soldier was slightly wounded by a blast near the frontier.
Hours before the humanitarian ceasefire began, about a dozen Palestinian fighters tunnelled under the border, emerging near an Israeli community. At least one was killed when Israeli aircraft bombed the group, the military said.
The break in 10 days of fighting was requested by the United Nations to allow residents of the tiny, densely populated and impoverished Gaza Strip to gather supplies and repair damage to infrastructure such as water mains and power.
Gaza health officials say at least 224 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed. In Israel, one civilian has been killed by fire from Gaza, where the Israeli military says more than 1,300 rockets have been launched into the Jewish state. The rocket salvoes have made a race to shelters a daily routine for hundreds of thousands of people.
Israel’s military, which government officials said was poised to expand its air and naval bombardments into possible ground operations, said it would respond “firmly and decisively” if militants launched attacks during the truce.
In Gaza City, hundreds of Palestinian lined up outside banks to collect salaries paid directly into their accounts, while others went food shopping. Gaza roads almost deserted over days of conflict were filled again with traffic.
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