Gaza: cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas

Gaza (Palestinian Territories) – A ceasefire agreement that reduces the specter of a new war was found early Saturday between Israel and Hamas after a day on Friday when the Israeli army massively bombed the Gaza Strip.
  

This escalation of violence claimed the lives of four Palestinians and one Israeli soldier.

" Thanks to the efforts of Egypt and the United Nations, we reached (to an agreement) to return to the state of calm that preceded between the (Israeli) occupation and the Palestinian factions "Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement.

On Friday, an Israeli soldier was shot dead by Palestinian gunfire along the border. the first killed near Gaza since the war that pitted Israel in 2014 against the Islamist Hamas movement that controls this Palestinian territory, told AFP a military spokesman.

In retaliation for the death of his soldier " during an incident " near the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli army reported conducting a series of air raids " against military targets ". Impressive fireballs and plumes of smoke rose in the Gaza sky after the strikes.

Two Palestinians were killed near Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, by Israeli strikes against a Hamas observation post, according to security sources and the Gaza Ministry of Health. A third died in a bombing in Rafah, in the same area.

A fourth was killed by Israeli gunfire near the border area east of Gaza City, according to the Gazan Ministry of Health.

Since March 30, Palestinians have been demonstrating regularly in the border area to denounce the Israeli blockade on Gaza and demand the return of Palestinian refugees who fled or fled their lands in 1948 when the state was created. Israel. At least 149 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since then.

There have been three wars between Hamas and Israel since 2008. The Israeli authorities accused Hamas of choosing " the escalation ".

– Appeals to Detention –

UN Special Envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, called on Israel and Hamas to restrain.

" Everyone in the Gaza Strip must move away from the precipice, not next week, not tomorrow, IMMEDIATELY ," Mladenov wrote on his Twitter account. " Those who want to provoke a war between Palestinians and Israelis must not succeed ," he added.

In the evening, three rockets were fired from Gaza to Israel, according to the army. " If Hamas continues its rocket fire, Israel will react much harder than they (the Hamas leaders) think ," warned Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held consultations Friday night with Chief of Staff General Gadi Eisenkot and Lieberman at the Ministry of Defense.

Israel is particularly angry about the killers and incendiary balloons launched by some protesters, who, according to him, set fire to more than 2,600 hectares in Israeli territory.

million. Lieberman has increased in recent days threats of a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip. Israeli television broadcast this week footage of army maneuvers training for a land incursion into the Gaza Strip.

Last weekend, Israel and Hamas had their biggest confrontation since the 2014 war. Israel had conducted dozens of air raids in response to incendiary bombs, killing two Palestinian teenagers. About 200 rockets and shells were then fired from the enclave to Israel.

– Reinforced blockade –

Israel has further reinforced this week the blockade on the Gaza Strip. Oil and gas deliveries are interrupted until Sunday via Kerem Shalom, the only crossing point for goods between Israel and this Palestinian territory.

Last week, Israel had already announced the closure of this crossing point for a number of goods, Hamas denouncing a " crime against humanity ".

Israel has also reduced the sea area open to fishermen in Gaza.

For more than a decade, the Palestinian enclave wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean has been subjected to a strict Israeli land, sea and air blockade.

The strengthening of the blockade intensifies pressure on Hamas in a territory where some 80 percent of the two million people depend on aid, according to the World Bank.