A temporary ceasefire in Gaza
July 26, 2014
Hamas announced late on Friday that it and and other militant groups had reached a "national consensus on a humanitarian truce," and Israel confirmed overnight that it too would observe "a humanitarian window in the Gaza Strip."
The Israel Defense Forces announced, however, that they would only hold fire as long as militants did not attack Israeli civilians or IDF troops. Israel was to continue operations to destroy a network of tunnels used by Gaza militants.
Speaking at a joint press conference with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Israel and Hamas had reached a "fundamental framework" for a longer-term ceasefire. Kerry traveled to Paris on Saturday to meet with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, and their counterparts from Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Qatar, Turkey and the EU.
According to the IDF, militants fired 75 rockets into Israel on Friday. The country's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted 15 of those.
Since July 8, militants have fired 2,500 rockets from Gaza. At least 35 IDF troops have been killed in combat operations, and three civilians died after being hit by indiscriminate rocket fire into Israel.
Palestinian toll grows
IDF shelling and airstrikes killed more than 20 people early on Saturday, including four children and at least one paramedic. Gaza's Health Ministry reported that 18 people who had been trapped in a house in Khuzaa since Thursday were among those killed. Late on Friday, the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip saw heavy Israeli shelling, with the the emergency department of a hospital being hit, wounding six people, including a foreign national, according to the Red Crescent Society.
Airstrikes and shelling in Gaza have killed nearly 900 Palestinians, about 75 percent of them civilians - including 192 children. The attacks have left 5,700 people injured and displaced tens of thousands. The United Nations has estimated that about half the Gaza Strip is now unsafe.
In the West Bank on Friday, at least five Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire during "day of rage" protests, with about 150 injured, according to hospital officials. Witnesses said an Israeli settler had killed another man.
Friday also saw protests against the Israeli offensive in Gaza and counterdemonstrations by supporters of Israel in Germany and elsewhere.
mkg/pfd (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)