GazaHamas, Israel exchange fire as Gaza cease-fires collapses
The fighting between Israel and Hamas has resumed after the 72-hour Egypt-sponsored cease-fire collapsed. Hamas has so far fired more than twenty rockets on towns in southern Israel, while Israel, in response struck the Sheikh Radwan area with air strikes and artillery fire. Thousands of Gazan have again fled their homes in anticipation of a forceful Israeli response. The talks in Cairo over a post-war arrangement in Gaza have stalled as a result of what appear to be unbridgeable differences between Israel and Egypt, on the one hand, and Hamas, on the other hand. The 72-hour Egypt-sponsored cease-fire came to an end 08:00 local time (02:00 EST). As was the case swith earlier cease-fire, Hamas fired into Israel an hour before the formal end of the truce. Hamas spokesmen said that Egyptian and Israeli proposals failed to meet Palestinian expectations. They said that the organization would resume firing rockets into Israel unless an agreement is reached.
The fighting between Israel and Hamas has resumed after the 72-hour Egypt-sponsored cease-fire collapsed. Hamas has so far fired more than twenty rockets on towns in southern Israel, while Israel, in response struck the Sheikh Radwan area northwest of Gaza City with air strikes and artillery fire. Thousands of Gazan have again fled their homes in anticipation of more forceful Israeli attacks. The talks in Cairo over a post-war arrangement in Gaza have stalled as a result of what appear to be unbridgeable differences between Israel and Egypt, on the one hand, and Hamas, on the other hand. The 72-hour Egypt-sponsored cease-fire came to an end 08:00 local time (02:00 EST). As was the case swith earlier cease-fire, Hamas fired into Israel an hour before the formal end of the truce. Hamas spokesmen said that Egyptian and Israeli proposals failed to meet Palestinian expectations. They said that the organization would resume firing rockets into Israel unless an agreement is reached.
“We are in a holding pattern and the Egyptians are still making great efforts so as not to blow up the talks,” a Palestinian official said yesterday.
Haaretz reports that on Thursday a senior Israeli official said that at that stage there was no agreement on extending the break in fighting between Israel and Hamas, and that Israel was taking Hamas threats seriously.
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, released a statement on Thursday urging members of the Palestinian delegation in Cairo to abandon the Cairo talks if the Palestinian demands are not met. The military wing’s statement said that the Palestinian delegates should refuse to extend the talks if Israel refused to accept the establishment of a seaport in Gaza.
The military wing’s statement, on purpose or not, failed to mention the fact that it is, in fact, Egypt which objects to the building of a seaport in Gaza. The building of a Gaza seaport was one of a long list of conditions which Hamas, with the encouragement of Qatar and Turkey, presented as the price for Hamas’s agreement to a cease fire (many of these conditions made it to John Kerry’s ill-fated alternative cease-fire proposal). As Hamas losses in the war mounted, the organization finally agreed to abandon all its conditions and accept the Egyptian cease-fire proposal. It said, though, that it would raise these conditions again and demand that they be included in the permanent post-war arrangement negotiated in Cairo. In response, Egypt said that it would not allow a seaport to be built in Gaza.
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades said it would destroy Israeli ground forces if they attempted to re-enter Gaza and threatened to shut down air traffic at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport.
Israeli officials said Wednesday that Israel had agreed to extend the 72-hour cease-fire unconditionally, but Hamas was insisting that all its demands be met before any extension.
Haaretz notes that the Palestinian delegation, which includes representatives of several Palestinian factions, including the Palestinian Authority, the PLO (itself an umbrella organization), Hamas, and others, continued to demand that the blockade on Gaza be fully lifted and that agreement be reached over the establishment of a seaport and an airport and the opening of border crossings.
Israel has demands of its own, the primary one conditioning the continuation of the cease-fire on an agreement to demilitarize the Gaza Strip and disarm the Palestinian factions there, first and foremost Hamas.
Haaretz notes that Israel is also suspicious of Hamas’s demand to establish sea and air ports in Gaza, but has expressed willingness to agree to the Palestinians’ other demands, including lifting the blockade, opening the border crossings, extending the fishing zone off the Gaza coast, and releasing Palestinian prisoners.
The Egyptian mediators tried to persuade both the Palestinians and the Israelis to postpone dealing with the more complicated issues until later in order to pave the way for continuing the cease-fire, which is a condition for sending large quantities of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday supported Egyptian efforts to broker a durable Israel-Hamas ceasefire, calling for a longer-term solution that provides for Israeli security while offering Gaza residents hope they will not remain “permanently closed off from the world.”
