Israel and Hamas agree to 72 hour humanitarian cease fire

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire beginning Friday, during which time there will be negotiations on a more durable truce in the 24-day-old Gaza war, the United States and United Nations announced Thursday.

The announcement came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to destroy Hamas’ tunnel network “with or without a ceasefire” and as the Palestinian death toll soared past 1,400. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the announcement.



In a statement released in New Delhi where Secretary of State John Kerry is travelling, the U.S. and U.N. said they had gotten assurances that all parties to the conflict had agreed to an unconditional cease-fire.

“This humanitarian cease-fire will commence at 8 a.m. local time on Friday, Aug. 1, 2014. It will last for a period of 72 hours unless extended. During this time the forces on the ground will remain in place,” the statement said.

“We urge all parties to act with restraint until this humanitarian cease-fire begins, and to fully abide by their commitments during the cease-fire.”

The statement said the ceasefire was critical to give civilians a much-needed reprieve from violence. During this period, civilians in Gaza will receive humanitarian relief and have time to bury the dead, take care of the injured and restock food supplies. The time also will be used to repair water and energy infrastructure.

Israeli and Palestinian delegations were expected to travel immediately to Cairo for talks with the Egyptian government aimed at reaching an end to the conflict.

PROTECTING CIVILIANS

The Pentagon called on Israel on Thursday to do more to protect civilian life during its military operations in Gaza, saying the conflict was taking too high a toll on civilians.

“The civilian casualties in Gaza have been too high. And it’s become clear that the Israelis need to do more to live up to their very high standards - their very high and very public standards - for protecting civilian life,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said at a news briefing.

Israel said Thursday it has called up another 16,000 reservists, allowing it to potentially widen its Gaza offensive against the territory’s Hamas rulers in a war that has killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and more than 50 Israelis.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing international alarm over a rising civilian death toll in Gaza, said on Thursday he would not accept any ceasefire that stopped Israel completing the destruction of militants’ infiltration tunnels.


The UN’s top human rights official accused both Israel and Hamas militants of committing war crimes in the Gaza conflict, but reserved her harshest words for the Israeli government, which she said Thursday was deliberately defying international law.

Israeli attacks in the strip continued Thursday, with witnesses saying that munitions struck the Omar Ibn al-Khatab mosque next to a UN school in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

BEIT LAHIYA: ISRAELI ATTACKS REPORTED TO HIT MOSQUE

The strike in Beit Lahiya early Thursday damaged water tanks on the roof of a building near the mosque, sending shrapnel flying into the adjacent school compound.“The shrapnel from the strike on the mosque hit people who were in the street and at the entrance of the school,” said Sami Salebi, an area resident.

Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said at least 15 people were wounded, with three of them in critical condition.

Kifah Rafati, 40, was being treated for shrapnel injuries at the nearby Kamal Adwan hospital. She said she and her six children had been sleeping in a classroom facing the mosque when the explosion went off. “There is no safety anywhere,” she said.

TUNNELS: ‘WE ARE DETERMINED TO COMPLETE THIS MISSION’

The Israeli military estimated on Wednesday the task of destroying tunnels into Gaza, already into its fourth week, would take several more days.

“We are determined to complete this mission, with or without a ceasefire,” Netanyahu said in public remarks at the start of a meeting of his full cabinet in Tel Aviv on Thursday. “I wont agree to any proposal that will not enable the Israeli military to finish this important task, for the sake of Israel’s security.”

“Progress has been satisfactory, and we are completing our treatment of the terror tunnels,” Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Thursday. “During the fighting, soldiers are finding new tunnel shafts, and they are also being neutralized.”

Three Israeli soldiers were killed on Wednesday by a booby trap detonated as they uncovered a tunnel shaft, the army said.

GENEVA: UN RIGHTS WATCHDOG SAYS HAMAS, ISRAEL GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that by placing and firing rockets within heavily populated areas both sides are committing “a violation of international humanitarian law, therefore a war crime.”

“Locating rockets within schools and hospitals, or even launching these rockets from densely populated areas are violations of international humanitarian law,” Pillay said, referring to Hamas, but added that doesn’t “absolve” Israel from disregarding the same law.

Pillay also took aim at the United States, Israel’s main ally, for providing financial support for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket defence system. “No such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling,” she said.

ISRAEL: 86,000 RESERVES NOW CALLED UP

Israel has now called up a total of 86,000 reserves during the Gaza conflict, which it launched to try to end the rocket fire from Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza.

An initial aerial campaign was widened into a ground offensive on July 17. Since then the campaign has concentrated on destroying more than 30 cross-border tunnels that militants have constructed to carry out attacks on Israeli territory.

Hamas has said it will only halt fire once it receives guarantees that a seven-year-old Gaza border blockade by Israel and Egypt will be lifted.

JEBALIYA: SCHOOL ATTACK ‘OUTRAGEOUS,’ UN SAYS

On Wednesday Israeli tank shells struck a UN school in the Jebaliya refugee camp where some 3,300 Gazans had crammed in to seek refuge from the fighting, killing at least 17 people and drawing sharp condemnation from the United Nations.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the deadly school shelling “outrageous” and “unjustifiable,” and demanded an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.

“Nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children,” the UN chief said.

Hours later, an Israeli airstrike hit a crowded shopping area in the Shijaiyah district in Gaza City, killing at least 16 people, including local Palestinian photographer Rami Rayan, who was wearing a press vest at the time, and wounding more than 200 people, al-Kidra said.