Israel, Hamas agree ceasefire
July 17, 2014
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri announced late on Wednesday that following consultations between its various factions, the Palestinian militant group had agreed to refrain from firing rockets into Israel between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. local time (9:00 - 14:00 UTC) on Thursday.
"The Palestinian factions agreed to accept the offer from the United Nations for a cooling-down on the ground for five hours starting from 10 in the morning," Zukhri told the AFP news agency, referring to an initiative put forward by Robert Serry, the UN's special coordinator for the Middle East peace process.
The Israeli army announced a few hours earlier that it had agreed to halt its bombardment of targets in the Gaza Strip for the same period of time, as requested by Serry. At the same time though, it warned that it would retaliate "firmly and decisively" should Hamas or any other Palestinian militant groups open fire on Israel during that time.
The United Nations had called on the two sides to agree to the "unilateral humanitarian pause" so that aid could be delivered to Gaza residents in need of food, water and other necessities.
This is the second attempt to broker a ceasefire since the latest hostilities broke out nine days ago. The previous attempt, brokered by Egypt, in which Israel held its fire for six hours on Tuesday, had been rejected by Hamas, who said it had not been consulted in the negotiations.
The truce agreement came after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo with a senior Hamas official in a bid to rescue the Egyptian proposal.
'Tragic outcome'
It also came after four Palestinian boys were killed in what appeared to be an Israeli naval strike on a beach in Gaza. Several hours after the incident, the Israeli military said in a statement that it was under investigation.
"Based on preliminary results, the target of this strike was Hamas terrorist operatives," it said. "The reported civilian casualties from this strike are a tragic outcome."
Gaza medical officials have put the death toll from the Israeli offensive at more than 200. One Israeli has been killed and several others injured in Palestinian rocket attacks since the latest fighting broke out last week.
The European Union and the US have been among those calling for an end to the violence.
EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Wednesday released a joint statement in which they condemned the rocket fire by Gaza militants and called on Israel to "act proportionately" and avoid civilian casualties.
They said they deplored the "loss of innocent lives and the high number of wounded civilians in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli military operations."
pfd/crh (Reuters, AP, AFP)