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Tension fell back a notch Sunday morning in the Gaza Strip and nearby Israeli settlements, in the wake of the worst armed confrontation between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement since the 2014 war. Saturday night, Hamas, leader of the Palestinian enclave, announced that a ceasefire had been concluded. Since then, a single exchange of fire has disturbed the fragile truce in the night.
The Israeli army conducted this Saturday, July 14, dozens of air raids, killing two Palestinian teenagers aged 15 and 16, while 200 rockets and shells fired from enclave into Israeli territory.
UN Special Envoy for the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov, an UN official on anonymous basis Sunday in the Gaza Strip, where he "works with all the actors concerned to defuse the situation". Saturday's escalation came a day after deadly clashes along the fence between Israel and the enclave, and after a confrontation in the night from Friday to Saturday, Hamas firing rockets and mortar shells into Israeli territory while Israel was conducting air raids.
Library converted to "training center"
Four Israelis were wounded by rocket fire at a house in Sderot, a town near the Gaza Strip. Gaza, regular target of Hamas fire, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli strike, which killed two teenagers aged 15 and 16 on Saturday, was targeting a building in the west of Gaza City, the Gazan Ministry of Health said, adding that the two boys were on the street. empty building at the time of the raid.
The five-storey building, formerly a national library, was used as a "training center" by Hamas, the military said. Israeli. Saturday's Israeli strikes also left at least 25 Palestinians injured, according to Gaza authorities. Hamas says it fired in response to an Israeli airstrike on Friday (July 13th) after a soldier was wounded by a grenade along the fence that separates the Jewish state from the Gaza enclave. 19659002] Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said, "The protection and defense of our people is a national duty and a strategic choice." Israel accuses Hamas of being responsible for this escalation of violence, the most intense since the devastating war of 2014, which takes place after more than three months of demonstrations and clashes along the barrier.
hard hit in Hamas since 2014 "
" The Israeli army has inflicted Hamas its hardest blow since 2014, "said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the opening of the cabinet. "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", added the Prime Minister Israel.
Since March 30, the border area has been the scene of demonstrations against the strict Israeli blockade and the "right of return" of Palestinians expelled from their lands or who fled 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 sending incendiary balloons and kites from Gaza, according to Israeli authorities. "Hamas continues to use civilian infrastructure for military purposes, endangering the civilian population," the Israeli army said in a statement issued on Sunday.
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Israel closed Kerem Shalom on July 9, the only crossing point for goods between Israel and the Gaza Strip, in response to incendiary kites sent from the enclave. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008 and have observed a tense ceasefire since the last war of 2014.
At the end of May, a previous escalation of violence between armed groups in Gaza 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 about 100 rockets and mortar shells at its territory, according to an army count.
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