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hide captionDuring Saturday’s humanitarian cease-fire, families returned to the Shejaiya district of Gaza City Saturday to find their homes ground into rubble by Israeli tank fire and air strikes. An attempt to extend the cease-fire by an additional 24 hours ended early Sunday, but Hamas said it would accept a new cease-fire, partly to acknowledge the holiday of Eid.
Mahumud Hams/AFP/Getty Images
During Saturday’s humanitarian cease-fire, families returned to the Shejaiya district of Gaza City Saturday to find their homes ground into rubble by Israeli tank fire and air strikes. An attempt to extend the cease-fire by an additional 24 hours ended early Sunday, but Hamas said it would accept a new cease-fire, partly to acknowledge the holiday of Eid.
Mahumud Hams/AFP/Getty Images
Update at 6:50 a.m. ET.
The Israeli Defense Forces resumed fighting in the Gaza Strip Sunday morning, ending their offer of a day-long extension to a humanitarian cease-fire; hours later, Hamas has declared a new truce.
Israel’s security cabinet decided to extend Saturday’s cease-fire for 24 hours, but the military resumed its offensive Sunday morning, Reuters reports, saying Hamas rocket fire was “incessant” overnight.
After several hours of fighting Sunday morning, a Hamas spokesman now says that the Islamic militants have agreed to a 24-hour cease-fire.
“Based on UN request and because of the circumstances (ie: difficult circumstances) of our people and because of Eid, the resistance factions (ie: Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other minor militant groups) have agreed on a humanitarian ceasefire for 24 hours beginning today at 2 PM,” or 7 a.m. ET, spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri announced on Facebook.
Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, is expected to begin Monday.
The initial 12-hour cease-fire had begun on Saturday morning, giving Gaza residents the chance to stock up on supplies after a nearly three-week Israeli offensive against Hamas militants. Israel then offered a four-hour extension, which Hamas rejected.
Hamas resumed attacks shortly after the initial cease-fire expired at 1 p.m. ET Saturday (8 p.m. Israeli time), firing rockets and mortars at several communities in southern Israel, as NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reported from Jerusalem.
Late Saturday night, Israel’s security cabinet voted to extend the cease-fire for an additional 24 hours, until midnight Israeli time on Sunday. But as NPR’s Emily Harris reported from Gaza, Hamas did not accept the terms of the truce.
“An Israeli government official said troops will remain in Gaza during an extended cease-fire and will keep destroying tunnels, weapons and other infrastructure used by militant groups,” Harris reported for our Newscast unit. “Hamas’ spokesman said in a statement it will not accept any cease-fire that doesn’t include Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza.”
Israel, meanwhile, will only accept a cease-fire that allows soldiers to remain in Gaza and destroy dozens of tunnels the IDF has located, reports The Associated Press.
The IDF says that after midnight Saturday, during the proposed truce extension, about a dozen rockets were fired toward Israel; the rockets caused no casualties or damage, according to the AP.
In addition to the rocket fire, Israel’s military says one of their soldiers was killed by a mortar during the cease-fire, Reuters reports.
The military announced the resumption of air, naval and ground activity Sunday morning; shortly afterward, according to the wire service, heavy shelling was heard east of Gaza City.
Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with European foreign ministers in Paris in an attempt to negotiate a more lasting cease-fire, according to the AP.
Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/07/27/335736414/israel-resumes-offensive-says-hamas-rocket-fire-ended-truce?ft=1&f=1001