Israel’s military says three mortar shells were fired from Gaza after a humanitarian ceasefire went into effect.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld had earlier said two rockets fell in open areas in southern Israel, causing no damage or injuries. He said the rockets landed at 12 p.m. local time, two hours after the ceasefire began.
The Army later said in a statement that the attack consisted of three mortar shells.
It was not immediately clear whether the Israeli military would respond. Israel and Hamas both agreed on a halt in fighting for a five-hour period on Thursday to allow Gazans to stock up on supplies.
Gazans crowd streets, restock during brief truce
Meanwhile, Gaza residents crowded banks, vegetable markets and shops on Thursday, taking advantage of a brief ceasefire that offered the first respite from 10 days of fierce fighting between Hamas and Israel, while the conflict looked set to resume within hours.
The truce was briefly thrown into doubt when Gaza militants fired three mortar shells toward Israel after the truce took effect at 10 a.m. (12.30 p.m. IST), but it appeared to be an isolated incident, and Israel did not respond.
Gaza City, a virtual ghost town for the past 10 days, returned to apparent normalcy within minutes of the start of the truce. Streets were jammed, motorists honked horns and Hamas police directed traffic at busy intersections.
Crowds of hundreds formed outside banks, with people jostling and shouting to get to ATM machines. In an outdoor market, shoppers filled plastic bags with fruit, vegetables and freshly slaughtered chickens.
The rush to restock signalled that Gaza residents don’t expect a quick end to the fighting. Egypt renewed cease—fire efforts after its initial attempt collapsed earlier in the week, but the demands of Israel and Hamas remain far apart.
“’The situation is likely to get worse because there is no clear way out of it,” said Moussa Amran, 43, a money changer in central Gaza City.
Israel accepted Egypt’s initial call earlier this week to halt all hostilities, but Hamas rejected the idea because it does not want to return to the situation before the outbreak of fighting. An intensified Egyptian border blockade of Gaza over the past year, combined with long-running Israeli restrictions on access, had severely weakened the Islamic militant group.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri insisted in an interview with The Associated Press that the ceasefire deal was still alive and expressed frustration that “Palestinian factions” — a clear reference to Hamas — had not agreed to it.
Thursday’s temporary truce, brokered by the United Nations, came after Israel carried out nearly 2,000 air strikes on Gaza over 10 days and Hamas fired more than 1,300 rockets into Israel, reaching the country’s economic and cultural heartland. The cross-border fighting has so far killed more than 230 Palestinians and an Israeli, according to officials.
