Israel OKs truce with Gaza militants
Egypt brokers truce after 40 Israeli air attacks, 100 Hamasmissile strikes in worst flare-up since 2014
GAZA — Israel and Gaza militants agreed to a truce on Saturday after exchanging bombardments with 40 Israeli air attacks and more than 100 Hamas rocket strikes. Egypt brokered the truce to one of the worst flare-ups since the 2014 Israel-Gaza war. The violence broke out after an Israeli uproar over Palestinian incendiary kites used to burn crops and scrubland in southern Israel.
GAZA— Israel and Gaza militants agreed to a truce on Saturday after Israel launched at least 40 airstrikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad positions in the Palestinian enclave.
But several hours after the announcement, the Israeli military said Palestinians continued to fire more than 100 rockets across the border.
Casualties
At least two Palestinians were killed while three Israelis were injured before Egypt could successfully broker the truce to one of the worst flare-ups since the 2014 Israel-Gaza war.
“Efforts by many parties have continued since the beginning of the escalation and the Israeli bombardment on Gaza,” said Fawzi Barhoum, spokesperson of the Hamas group that governs Gaza.
“They were crowned by the success of the Egyptian effort to restore calm and end the escalation,” he said.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said in a separate statement that a truce had been reached but a senior Israeli defense official said: “Only the facts on the ground will dictate our further response.”
The surge in violence followed mounting criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his supposed failure to counter the new Palestinian tactic of flying incendiary kites to burn crops and scrubland in southern Israel.
Over 100 rockets
The military said some 100 rockets were launched from Gaza at southern Israel, some of which were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome system.
“After consultations with the defense minister, the chief of staff and Israel’s top defense officials, we decided on powerful action against Hamas terrorism,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“The Israeli armed forces delivered the strongest blow against Hamas since [the 2014 Israel-Gaza war] and we will increase the intensity of our attacks as necessary,” he added.
But Intelligence Minister Is- rael Katz said the Israeli attacks should not be seen as the start of a military campaign against the Palestinian territory of 2 million, devastated by seven weeks of war with Israel four years ago.
“We are not in a [military] operation. The activity we are engaged in now sends a message that Israel will not tolerate rockets, explosive devices, mortar bombs or [incendiary] kites,” Katz said.
“The action we are taking draws a clear red line: that from now on, we will not allow this,” Katz added.
Blasts from Israel’s airstrikes shook homes and shattered windows in Gaza, where plumes of smoke rose from the sites of the explosions.
Building bombed
The Israeli military said one airstrike had hit a high-rise building in al-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, describing the target as a Hamas urban warfare training facility with a tunnel underneath.
Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the military had “no intention to harm anyone who is not a terrorist” and warned people before the attack to leave the area.
Rocket warning sirens went off in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon, about 12 kilometers from the enclave, further north than in recent attacks, but no hits were recorded in the city.
Hamas response
Hamas stopped short of claiming responsibility for the rocket fire, but Barhoum earlier called it “an immediate response by the resistance to the escalation” by Israel and a deterrence to further Israeli attacks.
The fighting began on Friday, when thousands of Palestinians gathered at the IsraelGaza border area for weekly protests that have now entered their fourth month.
The Israeli military said that Friday’s protesters were throwing burning tires, stones, explosive devices and fire bombs at its soldiers and that one of its officers was wounded by a Palestinian grenade hurled across the border fence.—