Temporary Palestinian-Israeli truce broken

The ceasefire between Palestine and Israel came to an end at midnight after no extension was agree upon and after both sides blame the other of breaking the temporary truce.

The parties had agreed on Monday to extend the temporary ceasefire, which was initially set for five days, for an additional 24 hours to allow them to reach an agreement on a permanent ceasefire during the negotiations in Cairo, Egypt.

Before the end of the truce yesterday, the Israeli army announced that it had resumed attacks on Palestinian targets in the Gaza Strip in response to what it called renewed rocket fire on southern Israel. Hamas denied the claim.

The renewed Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip killed a Palestinian girl and injured 25 others, mostly children and women, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Hamas said the Israeli raids were meant to “abort” the negotiations in Cairo.

In a statement to the Anadolu news agency earlier in the day, senior Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said: “The Israeli occupation bears full responsibility for all the repercussions of a violation of the calm.”

The Izz Ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades responded to the renewed Israeli raids by firing 41 rockets onto Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

On the political front, Khalid Albtsh, leader of the Islamic Jihad movement who are taking part in the ongoing negotiations in Cairo, said he “had suspended” indirect negotiations on reaching a lasting truce in Gaza because of the “intransigence” on the Israeli side.

While Israeli officials announced the collapse of the Cairo talks, according to remarks quoted by Israeli media, Azzam Al-Ahmad, head of the Palestinian delegation, said in a brief statement: “So far there has been no progress despite the extension”.

He added: “We made a paper containing the position of the Palestinian delegation and delivered it to the Egyptian side, until now, we are still waiting.”

“The Israeli delegation is trying to impose what it wants, and it is impossible to accept it as Palestinians,” he explained while accusing Israel of “procrastinating”.

He said: “We have about five hours, and hope to receive a response before this time so that we can determine the next step, and we, as Palestinians, we exercised flexibility to the maximum extent possible.”

In the meantime, sources at Cairo airport said: “The Israeli delegation in charge of the indirect negotiations left the Egyptian capital’s airport this evening [Tuesday] on a private jet.”

The Israel delegation was apparently ordered to return to after the temporary truce was broken.

On July 7 Israel began an assault on the Gaza Strip which has led to the death of 2,018 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and injured over 10,000, according to official Palestinian figures.