Gaza-Israel: fragile calm after the worst armed confrontation since 2014

Gaza-Israel: fragile calm after the worst armed confrontation since 2014
©
AFP
/ MAHMUD HAMS

Tension sank Sunday in the Gaza Strip and nearby Israeli settlements, in the aftermath of the worst armed confrontation between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement since the 2014 war.

Saturday In the evening, Hamas, which heads the Palestinian enclave, announced that a cease-fire had been concluded through Egyptian mediation. Since then, some exchanges of fire only came to disturb the precarious calm.

The Israeli army on Saturday conducted dozens of airstrikes, killing two Palestinian teenagers aged 15 and 16, while 200 rockets and shells were fired from the enclave into Israeli territory.

UN Special Envoy for the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov, visiting Sunday in the Gaza Strip, called on all actors to put an end to the "cycle" of violence, saying that the solution had to be political.

Saturday's escalation took place in the aftermath of deadly clashes along Israel's barrier to the enclave, and after a confrontation in the night from Friday to Saturday, Hamas firing rockets and mortar shells at Israeli territory while Israel was conducting air raids

"A walk"

Thousands of Palestinians attended Sunday funerals for two teenagers killed the day before. A video widely broadcast on social networks shows the two boys dying after being hit by shrapnel from an Israeli missile on the roof of an empty building in the west of Gaza City.

A group of Teenagers come to help them when a second strike lands near the building. The two boys were quickly evacuated, and soon after they were handed over to the paramedics, a third strike completely destroyed the building.

The five-storey building was used as a "training center" by Hamas, said the Israeli army.

The mother of one of the teenagers killed, Maysoun al-Namra, has it told AFP that his son and his friend had gone "for a walk".

"I heard the sound of a nearby bombardment, I called him but his cell was out of order and I knew something had happened". "What did he and his friend do to deserve to be killed?"

Israeli strikes on Saturday also left at least 25 Palestinian wounded, according to Gaza authorities.

Four Israelis were injured by rocket fire on a house in Sderot, a town close to the Strip of Gaza and regular target of Hamas shooting, according to Israeli authorities.

Hamas claims to have fired in response to an Israeli airstrike on Friday, which occurred after a soldier was wounded by a grenade along the road. the barrier separating the Jewish state from the enclave

At the funeral of the two teenagers, Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, promised an intensification of the demonstrations as long as the blockade was not lifted.

"This blood will not be shed in vain," he promised.

Since 30 March, the border area has been the scene of protests against the strict Israeli blockade and the "right of return" Palestinians expelled from their lands or fled to Israel's creation in 1948.

At least 141 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire and more than 4,000 have been shot since that date. No Israeli was killed.

In addition, more than 2,600 hectares of land were burned in Israel by the sending of incendiary balloons and kites from Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

"Coup le harder "

Israel accuses Hamas of being responsible for this escalation, the most intense since the devastating war of 2014, which took place after more than three months of demonstrations and clashes along the barrier.

"The Israeli army inflicted on Hamas its" hardest blow "since 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the opening of the cabinet meeting.

" It is said that Israel has accepted a cease-fire allowing the continuation of acts of incendiary terror with balloons and kites, it is false, we will not accept any attack against us ", he added.

Israel closed the 9 July Kerem Shalom, only crossing point of goods between Israel and t Gaza, in response to the incendiary kites sent from the enclave.

Israel and Hamas have waged three wars since 2008 and have observed a tense ceasefire since the 2014 conflict.

In late May, a previous escalation of violence between Gaza's armed groups and the Israeli army had revived the specter of a new conflict. Israeli raids had hit 65 Hamas military positions in the Palestinian enclave in retaliation for firing some 100 rockets and mortar shells at its territory, according to an army count.

15/07 / 2018 15:57:12 –
Gaza (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) –
© 2018 AFP