Gaza truce unravels within hours

35 Palestinians killed by Israeli shelling as Tel Aviv says one of its soldiers may have been abducted.

August 01, 2014 03:26 pm | Updated November 27, 2021 06:56 pm IST - GAZA CITY

A graduation photo of a Palestinian boy is hung on the wall in a destroyed house in the Gaza City neighbourhood of Shijaiyah, close to the Israeli border, on Friday. A three-day Gaza ceasefire that began on Friday quickly unravelled as several Palestinians were killed in a heavy exchange of fire in the southern town of Rafah.

A graduation photo of a Palestinian boy is hung on the wall in a destroyed house in the Gaza City neighbourhood of Shijaiyah, close to the Israeli border, on Friday. A three-day Gaza ceasefire that began on Friday quickly unravelled as several Palestinians were killed in a heavy exchange of fire in the southern town of Rafah.

A Gaza ceasefire quickly unravelled on Friday as violence erupted in and around the southern town of Rafah, with 35 Palestinians killed by Israeli shelling and the military saying one of its soldiers may have been abducted.

Israel and Hamas accused each other of breaking the ceasefire, which had been announced by the U.S. and the U.N. and took effect at 8 a.m. (10.30 a.m. IST) on Friday. The fighting broke out less than two hours later.

Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra told The Associated Press that in addition to the dead some 200 Palestinians were wounded in the “random” Israeli shelling of the Rafah area in southern Gaza.

The Israeli military meanwhile said one of its soldiers was “feared” abducted, without providing further details, and that Gaza militants had fired eight rockets and mortars at Israel since the ceasefire began, one of which was intercepted.

“Once again, Hamas and the terror organizations in Gaza have blatantly broken the ceasefire to which they committed, this time before the American Secretary of State and the U.N. Secretary General,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement shortly after the fighting broke out.

Israel launched an aerial campaign against Gaza aimed at halting Palestinian rocket fire on July 8 and later sent in ground troops to target launch sites and tunnels used by Hamas to carry out attacks inside Israel. The war has killed nearly 1,500 Palestinians, mainly civilians, and more than 60 Israelis, nearly all soldiers.

At least four short humanitarian ceasefires have been announced since the conflict began, but each has been broken within a few hours by renewed fighting. Friday’s temporary ceasefire was the longest to be announced thus far.

Under the ceasefire, Israeli troops on the ground in Gaza can continue to destroy tunnels along the heavily guarded frontier, but only those that are behind Israeli defensive lines and lead into Israel.

Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday vowed to destroy Hamas’ tunnel network “with or without a ceasefire”. But military spokesman Moti Almoz told Army Radio on Friday that Israel would not be able to eliminate the tunnel threat “100 per cent”.

Soon after the ceasefire went into force, Gaza’s residents took advantage of the truce to return to their homes, many of which had been destroyed in the fighting. Some arrived on tuk-tuks (three-wheeled taxis), by car or on foot to retrieve their belongings.

Near a main road in the heavily bombarded Gaza district of Shijaiyah, less than a kilometre from the Israeli border, residents surveyed extensive damage.

Basem Abul Qumbus returned to find his three-storey home — in which he had invested tens of thousands of dollars — uninhabitable. Tank shells had punched a hole in the ceiling of one bedroom and a wall had collapsed into the kitchen.

“The work of all those years is gone,” he said, as he struggled to salvage flour from bags that had been torn apart by shrapnel. Food supplies are running short in the blockaded coastal territory in the war’s fourth week.

Egypt issued a statement early Friday calling on the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and Israel to send negotiation teams to Cairo to discuss “all issues of concern to each party within the framework of the Egyptian initiative”.

Egypt had put forth a ceasefire proposal a week after fighting began last month. Israel accepted the proposal, but Hamas, which deeply mistrusts Egypt following last summer’s overthrow of an Islamist government in Cairo, rejected it.

In recent weeks Turkey and Qatar, which have warmer ties to Hamas but are at odds with Egypt, have tried to help broker a ceasefire agreement, with no results.

It’s not clear whether other nations will attend the Egypt talks, and aides to Kerry said Egypt will ultimately decide who will participate. A Hamas official in Qatar said Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials would be participating. Israel will not meet directly with members of either group because it considers them terrorist organisations.

Israel’s military said five of its soldiers were killed along the Gaza border on Thursday evening by a mortar round.

More than 1,450 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed since hostilities began on July 8, according to Palestinian officials. Israel says 61 of its soldiers and three civilians in Israel have been killed.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the matter.

Israeli police meanwhile warned residents to stay away from Israeli communities near the Gaza border during the ceasefire, saying the area remains “a war zone”.

“We ask the public to heed the orders of the police and Army and not to go to the Gaza Strip border area, it is a threat to your life!!!” the police said in a statement.

Police said Palestinians clashed with Israeli security forces in a number of neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem, and that Israelis attacked an empty bus. Police also restricted the entry of worshippers to a key Muslim holy site in the city to prevent disturbances.

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.