Israel and Hamas started a 72-hour cease-fire in Gaza Tuesday as Israeli forces appeared to be winding down their monthlong offensive in the Palestinian territory.
The deal followed Israel’s pullout of most of its forces from the Gaza Strip over the weekend. The military said Monday that it had completed the core mission of its operation—neutralizing tunnels that militants used for cross-border attacks. But Israel said it remained on alert to relaunch the offensive if rocket fire from Gaza persisted.
No previous cease-fire in this conflict has lasted more than a day, but U.S. officials said they were hopeful that this one would work. The truce brokered by Egypt set the stage for a new round of indirect talks in Cairo between Israel and the Islamist rulers of Gaza on terms for ending the deadliest of their three conflicts in less than six years.
Both sides are under pressure to stop fighting. Israel said it destroyed more than a third of Hamas’s estimated arsenal of 10,000 rockets and razed more than 30 tunnels. The fighting left Hamas in charge of a territory with severe shortages of electricity and clean water and at least 260,000 of its 1.8 million people displaced, the U.N. said.
In recent private meetings, the U.S. officials said they told their Israeli counterparts that the strikes—including one on Sunday in the southern city of Rafah in which Gaza health officials said 10 Palestinians were killed—made it harder for the U.S. to continue supporting and defending the broader military operation.
Since the conflict began on July 8, more than 1,800 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel said it lost 64 soldiers and three civilians.
An apparent airstrike hit a home in the Gaza Strip, killing an 8-year-old girl in the first minutes of a unilateral Israeli truce declared Monday. WSJ’s Nick Casey joins the News Hub with Michael Casey from Gaza City with the latest. Photo: Getty
To dial up the pressure further, the Obama administration also decided to step up public criticism of incidents in which civilians were killed and urged Israel to take steps to better protect noncombatants.
The State Department reaction to the strike outside the U.N. shelter on Sunday was the most pointed to date. Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. was “appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling.” U.S. officials said the wording was meant to signal to Israel that the administration has reached what American officials described as “a breaking point”.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the strike in Rafah “a moral outrage and a criminal act.”
Israel said it had launched a missile targeting militants on a motorcycle as they passed in front of the U.N. school. Shrapnel hit those inside the shelter, the U.N. said.
Israeli officials say the military takes precautions to avoid civilian casualties and has accused Hamas of using civilians as shields by operating in populated areas.
Men search for survivors in the rubble of a Gaza house hit by an airstrike. European Pressphoto Agency
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has chafed at pressure from Washington over Israel’s conduct in the war, and it is unclear what impact, if any, the public and private messages conveyed by U.S. officials in recent days had on his decision-making.
Palestinian and U.N. officials said most of those killed in Gaza were civilians. But Israeli officials estimate the civilian casualty rate in the current campaign at around 50 %. The U.S. believes the percentage is closer to 70%, based on estimates from the U.N. and other organizations and evaluated by American officials.
The Obama administration welcomed diplomatic breakthrough in Cairo. “We strongly support this latest proposal for a 72 hour cease-fire and urge both parties to respect it completely,” said Ms. Psaki, the spokeswoman.
The agreement came on the heels of a seven-hour unilateral Israeli truce on Monday that appeared to be a response to U.S., U.N. and European criticism. It curtailed but didn’t stop the violence.
Israeli forces held fire in parts of Gaza but continued shelling suspected Hamas positions in at least five cities and towns, international aid workers said. By evening, Gaza’s health ministry said, 18 Palestinians had been killed, a relatively low daily toll.
Hamas and allied Gaza militants allies ignored the truce and fired 86 rockets at Israel during the day, the Israeli military said.
Six minutes after the truce period began, an apparent Israeli airstrike demolished a three-story house in the Shati refugee camp north of Gaza City, killing an 8-year-old girl and wounding 30, the health ministry said.
(via WSJ)
