I/III. http://www.livemint.com/Politics/N1IMpBqBz3KP3Q9yHdZZPO/Israel-says-Gaza-ceasefire-violated-as-rockets-hit-in-South.html
Israel says Gaza ceasefire violated as rockets hit in South *The charge followed threats from both sides before end of a 72-hour truce that was scheduled to run until 8am local time * Calev Ben-David Saud Abu Ramadan An Israeli soldier sleeps at a military post just outside the border with the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Mediators worked against the clock on Thursday to extend a Gaza truce between Israel and Palestinians as the three-day ceasefire went into its final 24 hours. Photo: Reuters *Jerusalem*: Israel said a ceasefire with Hamas forces in Gaza was violated hours before it was due to expire, following a failure by negotiators from the two sides to reach a longer-term deal. "Moments ago, 2 rockets fired from Gaza hit southern Israel," Israel defense forces said in post on its Twitter feed. "Terrorists have violated the ceasefire." The charge followed threats from both sides before the end of a 72-hour truce that was scheduled to run until 8am local time on Friday. A spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US and European Union, told al-Jazeera there would be no extension unless Israel lifted an eight-year blockade of land crossings and its port. Hamas official Mushir al-Masri told a Gaza rally the battle is not over yet and "our fingers are on the trigger, and our rockets are trained at Tel Aviv". Yuval Steinitz, the intelligence and strategic affairs minister said in a BBC interview that in the event of further attacks, Israel would have no option except to take temporary control over Gaza in order to demilitarize the Gaza Strip from rockets and missiles. A resumption of hostilities would prolong a conflict that has claimed the lives of 1,868 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, and 67 people on the Israeli side. It would also mark a rebuff to US President Barack Obama's call for Palestinians and Israelis to extend the ceasefire. *Cairo talks * Egyptian mediators met on Thursday with a delegation that includes members of the Hamas movement that runs Gaza and officials representing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Voice of Palestine radio station reported. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, told Bloomberg Television that Israeli officials were also in Cairo and negotiating through the Egyptians, though Israel's government hadn't confirmed their presence. Israel withdrew troops from Gaza on 5 August after attempting to stop salvos of rockets fired by militants at Israel and destroy tunnels they used to stage attacks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Jerusalem on 6 August that the army remained outside Gaza, ready to deal with any ceasefire violation. Obama, at a news conference in Washington, said that after the ceasefire was extended the US goal would be able to help Gaza begin rebuilding. "For a sustained peace, the people of Gaza need to feel some sense of hope and the people of Israel feel confident that they aren't going to have a repeat of the kind of rocket launches that we've seen," Obama said. *Rebuild plan * As a condition for peace, Hamas wants a lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade that heavily controls movement of goods and people into the territory. Israel is seeking to eliminate the threat of future attacks by demilitarizing the group. Germany, France and the UK presented Israel with an initiative for the reconstruction of Gaza that includes international supervision to prevent the rearming of Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups, Israel's Haaretz daily reported on Thursday. Netanyahu has said any rebuilding effort in Gaza must be linked to the disarming of its militant organizations. Ezzat al-Rashq, a member of Hamas's political bureau, told the Egyptian Al Shorouk newspaper that disarming Gaza is a red line that his organization won't agree to. *Gaza damage * While Hamas has insisted its conditions for a permanent deal be accepted as a single package, it agreed to delay talks on some issues--including the reopening of Gaza's port and airport, and a safe-passage for travel between Gaza and the West Bank--an unidentified Palestinian official in Cairo told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat. The current Gaza conflict has been the most disruptive in the territory since Israeli settlers and soldiers left in 2005. About a quarter of Gaza's 1.8 million people were displaced by the fighting, in some cases taking refuge in UN schools that were subsequently bombed by the Israeli military. They've begun returning to find homes damaged or destroyed in the fighting. Foreign ministers from Arab countries including Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait will visit Gaza in the coming days to assess what's needed to begin reconstruction of the coastal strip, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil el-Araby said, according to the United Arab Emirates news agency WAM. *Bloomberg* <http://www.livemint.com/Politics/N1IMpBqBz3KP3Q9yHdZZPO/Israel-says-Gaza-ceasefire-violated-as-rockets-hit-in-South.html?utm_source=ref_article> <http://www.livemint.com/Politics/N1IMpBqBz3KP3Q9yHdZZPO/Israel-says-Gaza-ceasefire-violated-as-rockets-hit-in-South.html?utm_source=ref_article> II/III. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28699741 8 August 2014 Last updated at 04:38 Hamas rejects Gaza ceasefire extensionParts of Gaza have been razed to the ground over the last month The Palestinian militant organisation Hamas has rejected any extension of the three-day ceasefire in Gaza which expires on Friday morning. It said that Israel had failed to meet its demands. Key among these is the re-opening of Gaza Harbour to shipping. Two rockets fired from Gaza hit southern Israel three hours before the three-day ceasefire was due to expire, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. The IDF accused "terrorists" of violating the ceasefire. The rockets fell on open ground and caused no casualties, the Israeli army said early on Friday. A Hamas military wing spokesman earlier called on Palestinian negotiators holding indirect talks with Israeli neogtiators in Cairo to refuse any ceasefire extension unless its long-term demands were met. The spokesman said his organisation was ready for "a long war". "Many here expect the talks to end and fighting to resume", as Orla Guerin reports from Gaza Israeli officials said earlier that they were willing to extend the ceasefire before it expired at 05:00 GMT on Friday. But Hamas, which controls Gaza, says there was a big gap between the sides' positions. Four weeks of fierce fighting between Israeli forces and militants in Gaza claimed more than 1,900 lives. 'Stabilise' Egyptian officials, who brokered the 72-hour ceasefire that began on Tuesday, were working against the clock on Thursday to persuade both sides to agree a long-term deal. Half a million people in Gaza have been displaced by the month-long conflict More than 10,000 housing units have been destroyed or severely damaged, according to the UN Israeli troops have taken up "defensive positions" outside the Gaza Strip "Egypt's aims are to stabilise and extend the truce with the agreement of both sides and to begin negotiations towards a permanent agreement to cease fire and ease border restrictions," an Egyptian official told Reuters news agency. On Wednesday, Israeli officials said they had expressed their readiness to "extend the truce under its current terms". But the deputy political leader of Hamas, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said: "There is no agreement." Hamas had been reiterating its calls for the lifting of the blockade of Gaza, the release of prisoners and the end of the Israeli offensive. Life almost returned to normal for some people in Gaza during the truce The Israelis, for their part, were sticking firm to their main demand - the demilitarisation of Gaza. But the BBC's Sally Nabil in Cairo says that this was met with a big "no" from all the Palestinian factions. Israeli Communications Minister Gilad Erdan warned that the military would resume operations if the ceasefire was disrupted. Palestinian officials say at least 1,875 people have been killed since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July with the aim of halting rocket fire from militants in Gaza and destroying the network of tunnels it said were used by militants to launch attacks inside Israel. The UN says 1,354 of those who died were civilians, including 415 children and 214 women. Israel's government says 64 soldiers were killed, along with two Israeli civilians and a Thai national. It also claims that about 900 Palestinian militants were killed in the fighting. On Thursday, the human rights group Amnesty International called for an investigation <http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/mounting-evidence-deliberate-attacks-gaza-health-workers-israeli-army-2014-08-07> into what it said was mounting evidence that Israeli forces had deliberately attacked hospitals and health professionals in Gaza. The attacks have left at least six medics dead. III. http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/eu-proposes-gaza-reconstruction-hamas-disarmament-1652712029 Israel agrees to 'unconditionally' extend Gaza ceasefire #GazaUnderAttack <http://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/gazaunderattack> As talks between Israeli and Palestinian delegations continue in Cairo, Israel reportedly agrees to extend a three-day ceasefire in Gaza A Gazan stands on the rubble of a destroyed home following an earlier Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip (AFP) MEE and agencies Thursday 7 August 2014 12:16 BST Last update: Thursday 7 August 2014 1:25 BST Israel has reportedly agreed to extend a three-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for another 72 hours, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. "I can confirm that Israel has agreed to an Egyptian proposal to unconditionally extend the ceasefire for another 72 hours," ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told reporters on Thursday. "I don't know about Hamas' position regarding this," he said. Israel and Palestinian factions are currently observing an Egyptian-brokered three-day ceasefire that came into effect on Tuesday morning and is expected to expire at 0500GMT Friday unless extended. The two sides are currently in Cairo for indirect talks aimed at reaching a long-term ceasefire agreement. Palmor declined to discuss the contents of the Cairo talks. Earlier on Thursday, three EU countries reportedly presented Israel with a plan to rehabilitate the Gaza Strip in exchange for international supervision to prevent Hamas and other groups from rearming. Germany, France and Britain met with Israeli National Security Advisor Yossi Cohen in Jerusalem on Wednesday and gave him a two-page document outlining the proposal's principles, Israeli daily *Haaretz *reported. The principles are: preventing the arming of Hamas and other organisations with fighters in Gaza; rehabilitating the Gaza Strip in cooperation with the international community and Palestinian Authority (PA); enabling the transfer of humanitarian aid; setting up an international mechanism to prevent prohibited materials from reaching the Strip; ensuring that cement and iron, used for rebuilding Gaza, do not fall in the hands of organisations; returning the PA and President Mahmoud Abbas to Gaza; and potentially returning EU observers to the Rafah border alongside the Palestinian presidential guard. Cohen was said to have expressed interest in working with the EU diplomats to advance the proposal, *Haaretz* reported. There was no immediate reaction from Hamas or Islamic Jihad to the reported proposal. At odds over prolonging truce Overnight and early into Thursday, Israel and Hamas appeared to be at odds over prolonging the truce. Israel had indicated it would back an unconditional extension with an Israeli official telling reporters on Wednesday that his government had agreed to extend the ceasefire. But Senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouq denied the reports. "There is no agreement on extending the lull with Israel," Abu Marzouq wrote on his Twitter account on Wednesday. "Any news about the extension of the truce is unfounded," added Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. A second Israeli delegation also arrived in Cairo late Wednesday, joining an earlier delegation that came Tuesday, to join indirect talks with representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a security source at the Cairo airport said. The three-member delegation was received at the airport by officials from the Egyptian intelligence, which mediates the indirect talks, before heading to the venue of talks for discussions with Egyptian officials, the source told Anadolu Agency on the condition of anonymity. Last day of silence? Guns have stayed silent in the tiny Palestinian enclave since 8:00 am (0500 GMT) Tuesday, bringing relief to millions of people on both sides after the deaths of 1,886 Palestinians and 67 on the Israeli side. A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said 27,000 reservists called up for the conflict had been sent home, leaving a force of 55,000 still on active duty, in another sign of growing hopes for long-term quiet. In the battered Gaza Strip, shops, banks and markets have reopened, and people crowded into the streets, but not neccesarily any sense of normality. MEE contributor Mohammed Omer, who is currently in Rafah, one of the hardest hit areas, said he went to see his grandmother early Thursday morning who was displaced because Israel said they were planning to bomb homes in the area, despite the ceasefire. "In three minutes," Omer reports, "all homes that have tuck-tucks [small cars] had to take to the streets looking for shelter." None of the homes were bombed, however Omer said the violence of the past month can still be felt all around the neighbourhood. "As I type this, I can smell remains of dead bodies in the garage of ambulances nearby. Ironically, in the same place, several babies are just born in the last 2 hours," he writes. "Goodmorning from Gaza." Israel says actions 'proportionate' US President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the people of Gaza need greater hope for the future, as he urged the extension of an Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Obama said the United States was supporting ceasefire talks but added: "Long-term, there has to be a recognition that Gaza cannot sustain itself permanently closed off from the world." "I have no sympathy for Hamas. I have great sympathy for ordinary people who are struggling within Gaza," Obama added. Nearly half a million Palestinians were displaced by Israeli bombardment, and many are still sheltering in schools after their homes were flattened in the offensive. "Look at my house, it is totally smashed. How can my children live here?" asked Mussa Abu al-Rus, whose house had been taken over by Israeli soldiers. In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a vigorous defence of the conflict in the face of international criticism over heavy Palestinian civilian casualties. "I think it was justified. I think it was proportionate and that doesn't in any way take away the deep regret we have for the loss of a single civilian casualty," Netanyahu said in his first public remarks since the ceasefire came into effect. On the Israeli side, the loss of 64 soldiers is its biggest toll since the 2006 war against Hezbollah. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that after three wars in Gaza in six years, international patience with both sides is being tested. He opened a special meeting of the UN General Assembly with an appeal for a lasting peace. "The senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Israel, must end," he said. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
