Israeli and Palestinian negotiators yesterday resumed indirect talks mediated by Egypt and aimed at ending a month-old Gaza war, Egyptian state news agency MENA said, after a new 72-hour truce between the warring sides appeared to be holding.
The Israeli military said one rocket was launched toward Tel Aviv before the ceasefire began at 9pm on Sunday and may have landed in the sea. Hamas said it fired the missile.
A senior Israeli official said on Sunday that Israeli negotiators, who left Cairo on Friday last week hours before a previous three-day ceasefire expired, would return to Egypt to resume the talks only if the new truce held.
Photo: Reuters
Hamas is demanding an end to Israeli and Egyptian blockades of the Gaza Strip and the opening of a seaport in the enclave, a project Israel says should be dealt with only in any future talks on a permanent peace deal with the Palestinians.
A month of fighting between Hamas and Jerusalem has killed 1,938 Palestinians and 67 Israelis, while devastating wide tracts of the densely populated strip. Gaza hospital officials say the Palestinian death toll has been mainly civilian since the July 8 launch of Israel’s military campaign to quell Hamas’ rocket fire, with the heavy civilian losses and destruction of thousands of homes drawing international condemnation.
Israel has lost 64 soldiers and three civilians.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the new talks would be “the last chance” for a deal. Israeli representatives are not meeting face-to-face with the Palestinian delegation because it includes Hamas, which Jerusalem regards as a terrorist organization.
Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz said in a radio interview yesterday that disarming Gaza militants was crucial to sustain a long-term truce and he hoped this could be done by diplomacy rather than force.
“If there will not be a diplomatic solution, I am convinced that sooner or later we will have to opt for a military solution of taking temporary control of Gaza to demilitarize it again,” he told Israel Radio.
In Gaza, shops began to open and traffic was normal as some displaced families returned to the homes they fled during Israeli attacks, expressing hopes that this truce would last after a series of failed ceasefires.
“God knows if it is permanent,” Abu Salama, a resident of Gaza’s Shejaia District, said as he and his family headed home on a donkey cart. “A truce, no truce — it is becoming like Tom and Jerry. We want a solution.”
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