GAZA STRIP // Israel and Hamas militants continued to trade fire on Sunday despite both sides expressing interest in a temporary ceasefire after 20 days of fighting.
The wrangling comes as the death toll reached 1,060 Palestinians, most of them civilians, who were killed by a combination of Israeli airstrikes, shelling and invading troops that have laid waste to vast swathes of the territory.
The Islamist group continued firing rockets at Israel despite saying it would accept a United Nations-crafted truce that would halt fighting for 24 hours, in part to offer Gaza’s residents respite for the upcoming Eid Al Fitr holiday.
There was no response from Israel on that announcement, although Israeli leaders announced a 24-hour humanitarian lull in fighting on Saturday. Hamas officials initially rejected that proposal, launching more rockets at Israel, which still has ground forces, including tanks, deployed inside the occupied Gaza Strip.
Speaking to CNN, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Hamas-fired rockets on Sunday were evidence that the group was “violating their own ceasefire”.
The premier pledged he “will take what ever action is necessary to protect our people” in a campaign of aerial assaults and ground incursions that has levelled entire Palestinian neighbours and killed entire families.
Mr Netanyahu said in a separate interview with US-television network CBS that Israel would dictate the terms of events in the battle with Hamas because it was “a ruthless terror organisation”.
Israel, along with the United States and Europe, classify Hamas as a terror group, although they have indirectly negotiated with it in previous ceasefire efforts, such as the Egyptian-backed truce that ended eight days of war in November 2012 between the group and Israel.
Israel’s military says militants in Gaza have fired 2,500 rockets since the war began on July 8, while it says 43 of its soldiers also have been killed in that fighting.
Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinians in airstrikes on Sunday as part of a campaign that is being billed to destroy Gaza’s tunnels and Hamas’s rocket-launching capacity.
The continuation of hostilities followed a 12-hour humanitarian lull in fighting that allowed thousands of displaced Gazans to temporarily return to neighbourhoods that were decimated by Israeli attacks. What they found was vast destruction, with areas east of Gaza City, as well as in the northern village of Beit Hanoun, almost entirely flattened by Israeli airstrikes and artillery.
International efforts have increased to impose a durable ceasefire, but those efforts have stumbled because of conflicting demands between Israel and Hamas.
Israel demands that its troops be allowed to stay inside Gaza to finish destroyed a network of tunnels that militants have used to take cover for firing rockets and sneak into its territory to carry out attacks.
Hamas, along with many Palestinians, refuse anything less than a lifting of Israel’s Egyptian-backed blockade, which was first imposed after Hamas took control of Gaza seven years ago.
Israel's Haaretz newspaper cited dismay among Israeli officials about a ceasefire deal allegedly proposed by the US secretary of state, John Kerry.
It cited unnamed Israeli officials as being in a state of “shock” over the proposals because it did not cater to Israeli security demands — namely, halting Israel’s tunnel-destruction activities.
“We succeeded in foiling that document and now we are discussing other options,” the newspaper quoted an Israeli official as saying.
The US, along with Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, would likely want Hamas’s Palestinian rival Fatah manage the Egyptian border crossing with Gaza in any ceasefire agreement.
But Israeli calls for disarming Hamas would likely be vehemently opposed by the Islamist group, which formally calls for Israel’s destruction. Moreover, Hamas officials would likely not agree to any such disarmament as long as Israel continues to build settlements on the occupied territories of East Jerusalem and West Bank, which along with Gaza are wanted to form a Palestinian state.
The lack of a ceasefire agreement means that the conflict is likely to continue into the Eid holiday.
“We can’t feel any joy right now,” said Hamed Abul Atta, a Palestinian displaced by the fighting.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* with additional reporting by the Associated Press
