The 72-hour cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian factions in
Gaza expired at mid-night (00:00) local time today (21:00/13/8/14 GMT).
This meant that most of yesterday was taken up by frantic efforts to
agree an extension to the cease-fire.
As it has been throughout the conflict the main problem has been Hamas
who seemingly think that they have the support of the World behind them
spent the day making it clear they were spoiling for a fight. For
example the Palestinian delegation first issued a statement announcing
that the cease-fire would be the last cease-fire. Hamas itself then went
on to declare that it would resume fighting unless the blockade was
lifted in full. As Israel is already offering the unrestricted flow of
goods into Gaza the sticking point seemed to be granting freedom of
movement to Hamas fighters into Israel. The final straw came when Hamas
announced that Mohammed Deif - the leader of it's military wing - would
make a rare televised address at 18:30 (21:30 local). This would
immediately be followed by a press conference by the Palestinian
delegation in Egypt. This was widely predicted as Hamas announcing the
end to the cease-fire and the resumption of rocket fire into Israel.
Although Deif's TV appearance went ahead the press conference was
cancelled at the very last minute. However it appears that the change of
plan came too late for the message to reach fighters on the ground. So
within an hour of Deif's TV appearance (roughly 19:30/22:30) four
rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel breaking the cease-fire by
roughly 90 minutes.
While they are being coy about the exact details it appears that Israel
had a drone over the rocket launching site at the time the firing took
place. As a result they were immediately able to respond by attacking
the rocket launch site destroying it before the rockets even landed in
Israel. As it turns out 1 of those rockets was destroyed by the Iron
Dome system while the other three fell harmlessly into open areas in
Israel.
This swift show of force by the Israelis seems to have forced Hamas to
rapidly reconsider their plan to resume attacks. So within an hour the
Palestinian delegation announced that the cease-fire would be extended
by a further 5 days (120 hours) without pre-condition. This sudden about
face immediately plunged the situation into chaos with Israel having
only 30 minutes to decide whether to agree. Matters were confused
further because again the message didn't get through to fighters on the
ground who fired a further 4 rockets into Israel as the original
cease-fire came to an end. This prompted Israel to respond against the
rocket launch sites with air-strikes but once those air-strikes had been
completed Israel did agree to the cease-fire which was back dated to
start at mid-night as scheduled.
While all this was going on one child was killed and another two injured
in a rocket strike inside Egypt close to the border with Gaza. It is
not yet clear whether that rocket came from Gaza or whether on the eve
of the anniversary of the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque clearence it was
simply Egyptian militants fighting the Egyptian government.
Overnight the US' response to all this has proved rather worrying.
Firstly the US decided to announce that Israel had agreed to the
cease-fire long before Israel had agreed. US President Obama then went
on to urge Israel to agree to any cease-fire regardless of its security
needs. Finally the US announced that it would be deciding future weapons
sales to Israel on a case-by-case basis and would not be going through
with a delivery of highly accurate Hellfire missiles. A shortage of
Hellfire missiles would of course force Israel to rely on less accurate
weapons increasing the risk of civilians being killed.
However the general tone of the US position is only likely lead to Hamas
thinking that they indeed do have the support of the US encouraging
them to become more militant further reducing the chances of a
negotiated end to hostilities.
(Originally Posted) 12:45 on 14/8/14 (UK date).
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