BackIsrael hits Gaza, quits ceasefire talks after rocket fire
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned there would be 'a very strong response' should there be any resumption of fire from Palestine
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Gaza City: Israel ordered its negotiators back from ceasefire talks in Cairo, and warplanes hit Gaza on Tuesday after Palestine rockets smashed into south Israel as the two sides were observing a 24-hour truce.
Nine days of relative quiet in the skies over Gaza Strip came to an abrupt halt when three rockets struck southern Israel just hours before the truce was to expire at midnight local time.
Israel immediately ordered a military response, with warplanes striking targets in Gaza Strip, although there were no immediate reports of casualties, Palestinian security sources and witnesses told AFP.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rockets fired at Beersheva, which is home to around 200,000 Israelis.
An Israeli official said the negotiating team had been ordered back from Cairo where Egypt has been pushing for a decisive end to the Gaza bloodshed, which has killed more than 2,000 Palestine nationals and 67 on the Israeli side.
However, there was no immediate confirmation the team had left.
“The Cairo process was based on the premise of a total ceasefire," another official told AFP. “If Hamas fires rockets the Cairo process has no basis."
Israel has repeatedly said it would not negotiate under fire and on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned there would be “a very strong response" should there be any resumption of fire.
Hamas dismissed his remarks as having “no weight".
Thousands flee
Thousands of Palestine nationals fled their homes in neighbourhoods of eastern Gaza City on Tuesday, carrying bags of clothes, pillows and mattresses after renewed Israeli air strikes, witnesses said.
An AFP reporter saw hundreds of Palestinians streaming out of Shejaiya, an area devastated by more than a month of fighting between Israel and the Islamist movement which rules Hamas.
Thousands more were leaving the Zeitun and Shaaf areas, alarmed by a series of explosions, and heading towards shelters in UN schools, the witnesses said.
The United Nations (UN) said Monday that more than 237,600 Palestinians were already seeking shelter at 81 UN schools across the Gaza Strip.
On Tuesday, Israel ordered its negotiators back from talks in Cairo and warplanes hit targets in Gaza after Palestine rockets smashed into the country’s south as the two sides were observing a 24-hour truce. Nine days of relative quiet in the skies over Gaza came to an abrupt halt when three rockets struck southern Israel just hours before the truce was to expire at midnight local time.
Israel immediately ordered a military response, with warplanes striking targets. Two boys aged six and nine were moderately wounded in the southern city of Rafah, the Palestinian emergency services spokesman said.
‘Sabotaging the talks’
In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri denied the Islamist movement had fired rockets over the border on Tuesday, accusing Israel of trying to sabotage the ceasefire talks.
“We don’t have any information about firing rockets from Gaza. The Israeli raids are intended to sabotage the negotiations in Cairo," he told AFP.
The talks in Cairo centre on an Egyptian proposal that meets some of the Palestinian demands, such as easing Israel’s eight-year blockade on Gaza, but defers debate on other thorny issues until later. The aim is to broker a long-term arrangement to halt more than a month of bloody fighting, although both sides have largely silenced their guns since 11 August, thanks to a series of temporary truces.
Talks at the headquarters of Egyptian intelligence resumed at around 0800 GMT, a Palestinian official told AFP.
Although the back-to-back truce agreements have brought relief to millions on both sides of the border, the drawn-out waiting and the fear of a resumption of fighting was beginning to test people’s patience. “No one here has any hope," said Riyad Abul Sultan, a father of 10 with thick curly hair, smoking as he sat on a flimsy mattress at a UN school in Gaza. “Maybe they’ll finish the war for two hours, maybe Israel will start bombing again."
The Palestinians say agreement over a long-term arrangement in Gaza has been delayed by Israeli foot-dragging over key issues. “The negotiations failed on Monday evening because the Israelis refused to include a port or an airport in the agreement," a Palestinian close to the talks said, on condition of anonymity.
“The Egyptians then added a clause allowing for the postponement of talks on this issue in order to avoid Israel raising the issue of (ridding Gaza of) rockets and missiles," he said.
Israel has repeatedly demanded that Gaza be demilitarised although the subject is not overly mentioned in the Egyptian proposal as seen by AFP.
Hamas shift
Islamic Jihad on Tuesday accused Israel of “intransigence" while Hamas’s Abu Zuhri said the Jewish state was “playing for time" at the talks. Hamas had repeatedly warned it would not extend the temporary ceasefire again, pressing for immediate gains that would allow it to claim concessions from Israel after the devastating four-week war, which began on 8 July.
But a senior official within the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) said the Islamist movement appeared to have changed its position following a meeting at the weekend between exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat.
“It looks like Hamas and Islamic Jihad will agree to the Egyptian paper," he told AFP.
Egypt’s proposal calls for both sides to immediately ceasefire and includes provisions relating to opening the borders to allow for free movement of people, goods and construction materials, as well as a clause on regulating the financial crisis within the enclave.
But crucially, it postpones discussions on the thorniest issues, such as a port and airport, for another month “after calm and stability returns", along with talks over exchanging the remains of two Israeli soldiers for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Meanwhile, Jordan’s national carrier confirmed Tuesday it had resumed flights to Tel Aviv after suspending them for a month due to rocket fire near the runway of Israel’s main airport.
Royal Jordanian, which operates 20 flights a week to Tel Aviv, said it resumed normal operations on Sunday. The rocket strike had prompted major US and European airlines to halt flights to Israel for several days in July over safety fears.
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