This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-strip-conflict.html
The article has changed 12 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Cease-Fire in Gaza Expires With Rockets Fired Into Israel | Cease-Fire in Gaza Expires With Rockets Fired Into Israel |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| JERUSALEM — A 72-hour truce in the Gaza fighting expired at 8 a.m. Friday as Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel, signaling Hamas’s refusal to extend the lull and its desire to apply pressure for its demands to be met at talks in Cairo for a more durable cease-fire agreement. | JERUSALEM — A 72-hour truce in the Gaza fighting expired at 8 a.m. Friday as Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel, signaling Hamas’s refusal to extend the lull and its desire to apply pressure for its demands to be met at talks in Cairo for a more durable cease-fire agreement. |
| In response, the Israeli military said it had targeted “terror sites” across the Gaza Strip, and there were reports of airstrikes and artillery fire. | |
| Israel had said it was willing to extend the truce unconditionally and had vowed to respond to any fire from Gaza. Israel has withdrawn its ground troops from the Gaza Strip, but the air force has been on standby, and forces have remained on alert along the border. | |
| After three days of quiet, the Israeli military said, at least 18 rockets were fired at 8 a.m. and in the hour afterward. Two were intercepted by Israel’s antimissile defense system over Ashkelon, the military said, while 14 others fell in open ground, causing no injury or damage, and two landed short in the Gaza Strip. The military also reported two launchings of rockets or mortar shells from Gaza before dawn. | |
| There was no immediate word from Hamas about the rockets, but Islamic Jihad, another militant faction that has taken part in the fighting and is represented at the talks in Cairo, claimed responsibility for firing them. | |
| Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, wrote in an Internet posting on Friday morning that it did not accept an extension of the lull, adding, “We will continue negotiations.” | |
| Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said in a statement: “The renewed rocket attacks by terrorists at Israel are unacceptable, intolerable and shortsighted. Hamas’s bad decision to breach the cease-fire will be pursued by the I.D.F. We will continue to strike Hamas, its infrastructure, its operatives and restore security for the State of Israel.” | |
| The Israeli government said in a statement: “Hamas continues to fire at Israeli civilians. That is despite Israel announcing that it was ready for an extension of the cease-fire.” | |
| Just at 8 a.m., as television correspondents stood on the beachside road in Gaza City to do their live reports, the first rocket was fired. The signature white plume of the Israeli interception was visible in the air for miles. A few more booms were heard in the next 15 minutes, but they hardly disrupted the trickle of donkey carts on the street. | Just at 8 a.m., as television correspondents stood on the beachside road in Gaza City to do their live reports, the first rocket was fired. The signature white plume of the Israeli interception was visible in the air for miles. A few more booms were heard in the next 15 minutes, but they hardly disrupted the trickle of donkey carts on the street. |
| People were out in the streets of Gaza City, and some stores were open, much as during the previous three days of cease-fire. Children roamed outside, men sat on sidewalks, and a line of a few dozen waited to buy bread at the Khouli Bakery. | |
| Farther north, in Jabaliya, where thousands of people have been sheltering in United Nations schools, the streets were teeming with people. An elderly man was walking with seven camels. Children balanced cartons of supplies on their heads, taking them from the market to the shelters. | |
| In areas closer to the border with Israel, like Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the streets were almost deserted. In Beit Lahiya, half of the two dozen tall apartment buildings of the huge Al Nada complex had been destroyed by nearly a month of Israeli airstrikes, artillery and tank fire. | |
| In Beit Hanoun, now a ghost town of toppled homes and rubble-strewn streets, Anas Kaferna, 25, and his brother and sister were tying mattresses to the top of a silver sedan and heading south. “I don’t want to be the last one in town,” Mr. Kaferna said. | |
| Since their home was destroyed at the start of the ground invasion, the siblings had been sleeping at a maternity hospital where Mr. Kaferna worked as a security guard. But with the news that the cease-fire was over, they headed to Gaza City, although they did not know where. | |
| “Now it seems the situation will get harder,” he said. “Maybe yes and maybe no. I don’t understand politics.” | |
| The 72-hour truce came after 29 days of fierce fighting that left more than 1,800 Palestinians dead, many of them civilians. On the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and three civilians were killed. Israel said its military campaign, which began July 8 with an aerial assault and led to a ground invasion, was aimed at quelling rocket fire and destroying Hamas’s network of tunnels leading into Israeli territory. | The 72-hour truce came after 29 days of fierce fighting that left more than 1,800 Palestinians dead, many of them civilians. On the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and three civilians were killed. Israel said its military campaign, which began July 8 with an aerial assault and led to a ground invasion, was aimed at quelling rocket fire and destroying Hamas’s network of tunnels leading into Israeli territory. |
| Indirect talks underway in Cairo appear to have yielded few results so far, not even an agreement to extend the temporary cease-fire. Hamas is demanding a lifting of the blockade on Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt and an opening of all the border crossings to allow the free movement of people and goods in and out of the Palestinian coastal territory. Israel is demanding measures to prevent Hamas from rearming and, eventually, the demilitarization of Gaza. | |
| A spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said in a speech aired Thursday night on Hamas’s television channel, Al Aqsa, that the Israeli forces had left in defeat. | |
| “We gave a space for negotiations in order to agree on the demands of the Palestinian resistance and bring our people a better life of dignity,” he said, warning, “We are ready to resume the gun battle again.” | “We gave a space for negotiations in order to agree on the demands of the Palestinian resistance and bring our people a better life of dignity,” he said, warning, “We are ready to resume the gun battle again.” |
| “We will not accept to end this battle without stopping the aggression, lifting the siege and the most important demand of building a seaport for Gaza, and we will never accept less than that,” he said. | “We will not accept to end this battle without stopping the aggression, lifting the siege and the most important demand of building a seaport for Gaza, and we will never accept less than that,” he said. |