World Jewish News

Israel’s security cabinet accepts to extend humanitarian ceasefire for 24 hours but Hamas rejects

Israel’s security cabinet accepted Saturday night to extend a humanitarian halt to hostilities in the Gaza Strip for 24 hours, but said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would continue to operate to destroy tunnels from Gaza into its territory. Even as the ministers were meeting, sirens signaling incoming rockets continued to sound over central and southern cities.
The decision came despite continued fire from Gaza into Israel during Israel’s initial four-hour extension of a 12-hour humanitarian pause on Saturday that both sides had agreed to at the request of the United Nations.
Three mortars landed in open areas near Gaza just as the original lull was expiring at 8 p.m. Before midnight, more than a dozen rockets were fired at Israel, four of them intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system.
A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, rejected the expansion of the pause until midnight Sunday.
Earlier, Hamas had taken credit for sending two rockets toward Tel Aviv.
The Israeli army had made clear it would not withdraw from what it called “defensive positions” during the lull, and on Saturday night warned Gaza residents “not to return to previously evacuated areas.”
“Those who ignore these warnings are placing themselves at risk and are jeopardizing their own safety,” the IDF said in a statement.
Five Israeli soldiers were killed and 35 were wounded in fighting in Gaza since Friday evening. Since Operation Protective Edge began, 42 Israeli soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, meeting in Paris with Arab and European foreign ministers, had pressed for an extension of the 12-hour humanitarian pause that both sides would accept. He repeated his argument that any temporary truce needed to be followed by an enduring solution that would address Israel’s security needs. Chief among those needs are a halt to rocket fire by Hamas on Israeli cities and the destruction of the tunnel network.
“I understand that Israel can’t have a cease-fire” in which “the tunnels are never going to be dealt with,” Mr. Kerry said. “The tunnels have to be dealt with. We understand that. We are working at that.”

EJP