Gaza ceasefire breaks down again
ISRAELI shelling killed 40 people in southern Gaza yesterday, a Gazan hospital spokesman said, just hours after a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire took effect.
A doctor at a nearby Abu Yusef al-Najjar hospital gave no details of the identities of those killed, but said they had died in a bombardment east of the southern city of Rafah, after an AFP correspondent saw heavy shelling of the area.
Israel accused Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups of violating the truce amid Israeli media reports that gunmen had fired at Israeli soldiers in the Rafah area. An official in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Hamas and other armed groups in the Gaza Strip had “flagrantly violated the ceasefire”.
Missile warning sirens were blaring out in southern Israel yesterday morning.
The 72-hour break had been announced in a joint statement by US secretary of state John Kerry, and UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon. It was the most ambitious attempt so far to end more than three weeks of fighting, and followed mounting international alarm over a rising Palestinian civilian death toll.
“This ceasefire is critical to giving innocent civilians a much-needed reprieve from violence,” the statement said.
After the ceasefire began in the early morning Gaza’s streets began to fill with Palestinian families. Laden with belongings, they streamed back to homes they fled during fierce fighting that destroyed or damaged thousands of dwellings.
“We are going back to Beit Lahiya [in the northern Gaza Strip],” said father-of-four Asharaf Zayed. “We hope the truce will be permanent and we won’t have to go back to a UN shelter.”
But less than three hours later, the ceasefire was over.
Gaza officials say at least 1 459 Palestinians have been killed. In Israel, 61 Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians have been killed - Reuters-AFP.