Operation Protective Edge
Week 5 - 04 August - 11 August 2014
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said 04 August 2014 that the country's military forces were nearing the end of their effort to destroy tunnels Hamas has used to store weapons and sneak into Israel. But he said Israel's 28-day campaign to demilitarize Gaza and end Hamas rocket launches on the Jewish state would only end when there is "a prolonged period of quiet and security" for Israeli citizens.
Palestinians said Israeli attacks on Gaza had killed 1,804 Palestinians, most of them civilians, while more than 8,000 had been wounded. Israel said 64 of its soldiers and three civilians had been killed. Since beginning its military operation July 8 against heavy rocket fire from Gaza, Israel has carried out more than 4,600 airstrikes across the crowded seaside area. Hamas has fired more than 3,200 rockets into Israel during the war.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a 72-hour cease-fire in the Gaza Strip beginning early Tuesday. The announcement came late Monday in Cairo, where Egyptian mediators held talks with a Palestinian delegation on terms of a durable truce in war-torn Gaza. No further details were immediately reported.
By 05 August 2014 Israeli soldiers were in defensive positions outside Gaza after destroying the last of 32 known tunnels the military says Hamas used in cross-border attacks. The cease-fire ended four weeks of fighting that killed at least 1,922 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and devastated large sections of Gaza. Hamas also "executed an unspecified number of Palestinians as Israeli spies," Reuters reported. Sixty-four Israeli soldiers and three civilians also were killed. Most of the Israeli casualties occurred during a ground invasion by Israeli troops to destroy Hamas' cross-border tunnels.
On 08 August 2014 Palestinian militants resumed firing rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip and Israeli jets responded with airstrikes as a three-day cease-fire officially expired. The Israeli military said that at least 19 rockets were launched from Gaza after the truce ended at 8:00 a.m. local time. By midday, 33 had been fired at Israel, with 26 landing there, several intercepted and four striking in Gaza.
On August 10, 2014 Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to a new 72-hour cease-fire in Gaza, providing the warring sides another chance to broker a comprehensive cease-fire. Egypt said Sunday the new truce would start within hours (at 2100 GMT, 5 p.m. EDT) and clears the path for renewed negotiations in Cairo to end more than a month of fighting between the Hamas militants who run Gaza and neighboring Israel. A month of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza had killed more than 1,911 Palestinians.
An Egyptian-brokered 72-hour ceasefire came into effect at midnight on Sunday 10 August 2014, after Israel said it would not negotiate in Cairo unless the rockets stopped. Minutes before the declared ceasefire, rockets were fired at Beersheba and Tel Aviv, following a day of rocket fire directed at Israel's south. By 10 August 2014, since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, Hamas had fired 3,488 rockets at Israel. The two-month-long conflict saw at least 1945 Palestinians and 67 Israelis killed.
Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli intelligence minister, warned that without a reasonable outcome to the talks, his country would have to consider sending ground troops back into Gaza. "Either there will be a reasonable resolution of the situation in Gaza, or, if the fire resumes, we will have to consider a broadening of the operation, including an expansion on the ground, overthrowing the Hamas authorities and the demilitarisation of Gaza by ourselves," Steinitz told army radio.
A rocket landed in southern Israel two hours before the end of a temporary cease-fire agreed between Hamas and Israel authorities. The fire came as talks between the two sides in Egypt stalled. “Gaza terrorists have breached the ceasefire and launched a rocket at Israel, hitting the Hof Ashkelon regional council,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AP that a rocket landed in an open area causing no damage or injuries.
“We have finished talks today without any agreement. More work needs to be done to have a better deal,” a Hamas official said on condition of anonymity. “We are deliberating internally over an offer to extend the ceasefire,” the official added. A senior Palestinian negotiator said a new ceasefire in Gaza will last five days, adding that more time was needed to discuss "some" remaining disputes with Israel over a long-term truce. Israel and Palestinians agreed to extend the ceasefire, after failing to reach a long term agreement in Cairo-mediated talks.
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