Gaza City (CNN) -- A temporary cease-fire
between Hamas and Israel expired Thursday, followed quickly by new rocket
attacks from Gaza and a resumption of Israeli military airstrikes.
Two Palestinians were injured in
one of the Israeli airstrikes, which came after a five-hour lull requested by
the United Nations for humanitarian reasons.
At least three mortar shells were
fired from Gaza during the cease-fire, and the Israeli military said a soldier
was injured by an explosion during an "operational activity" near
southern Gaza. Troops responded with mortar fire, the Israel Defense Forces
said.
Despite those incidents, U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said both sides had "mostly respected"
the cease-fire.
"The pause shows that a
cessation of hostilities is possible if all the parties demonstrate the
necessary will and put the interests of civilians, who have borne the brunt of
this escalation, first," Ban said in a statement.
At
least 230 Palestinians have been killed and close to 1,700 have been injured
since Israel began its anti-Hamas military operation July 7, according to
Palestinian health officials.
One
Israeli death has been reported.
Cairo
talks
In
Cairo, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Arab League
Secretary-General Nabil Al-Arabi held talks Thursday aimed at reaching a
cease-fire agreement.
An
Israeli delegation also attended, leaving after several hours, the state-run
al-Ahram news agency reported.
"I
expect that we will reach an agreement very soon; the efforts of a cease-fire
is to stop the bloodshed, killing and destruction in Gaza," said Nabil
Shaath, an Abbas adviser and member of the central committee of the Palestine
Liberation Organization.
He
said negotiators were focusing on stopping bloodshed above all else. He said
they would later discuss Hamas demands, including opening Gaza border crossings
and freeing prisoners whose exit from jail was negotiated in exchange for the
release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
"These
are all legitimate demands by Hamas, but the priority is for an immediate
cease-fire," Shaath said.
Hamas
leaders had rejected an earlier Egyptian cease-fire proposal, saying they had
not been consulted on the deal and complaining that it did not address their
broader demands.
Hamas
officials had said Wednesday they would not participate in the Cairo talks, but
PLO official Saeb Erakat -- who was in the Egyptian capital with Abbas -- said
the Palestinian Authority leader had met with representatives of Hamas and
Islamic Jihad.
Erakat
said negotiators are trying to extend the U.N.-sponsored temporary humanitarian
cease-fire on a "rolling basis."
"While
there is no plan at this point for a comprehensive cease-fire agreement ... we
are trying to extend the current one by another six or 10 hours, or even
several days if possible," he said.
Egypt
is playing a large role in the talks despite its distrust of Hamas.
Like
Israel, Egypt considers Hamas a terror organization because of the group's
roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt's military-led government banned
after the country's 2013 coup.
Temporary
cease-fire
During
Thursday's temporary cease-fire, Gaza banks opened for the first time in 10
days. Residents poured into the streets.
Red
Cross officials visited hospitals and damaged houses to assess medical needs,
and worked with local officials to fix water pipelines. Some work was also done
to repair power lines, the United Nations said.
At
least 10 to 15 trucks entered Gaza through the Karem Shalom border crossing
once it opened at 1 p.m. (6 a.m. ET), according to Ra'ed Fatooh, the
Palestinian official in charge of the crossing in Gaza.
Goods
were limited to medical supplies and basic foodstuffs such as rice, sugar, oil,
canned food, flour and other basic goods, he said.
"The
trucks are being subjected to strict and difficult search by the Israeli
security before entering the crossing," he said.
The
search, he said, illustrated one of the chief complaints of Gaza residents --
fluctuating border controls that often stymie the flow of goods into the
territory.
"We
want the crossing to open in a normal fashion to go back to how it was before
2007 and to bring the required goods and products for Gaza for the people and
residents to live in dignity as the rest of the world," Fatooh said.
Deaths
on Gaza beach
Fallout
continued Thursday from the deaths the day before of four cousins ages 9 to 11 who
died in an Israeli military strike on a Gaza beach.
The
results of a preliminary investigation suggests the deaths were the result of a
"a tragic misidentification of the target," a spokesman for Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN on Thursday.
"We
didn't want to kill those four boys. That was not our intention," Mark
Regev said. "I'd even say the opposite is true. Had we known that that
missile was aimed at four young men like that we would have not sent the
missile."
A
Hamas official called the killings a "war crime."
"Those
children were not firing rockets, they were just playing," Hamas spokesman
Sami Abu Zhuri told reporters Wednesday.
Regev,
however, said a legitimate Hamas target was nearby, highlighting what he called
a "complex combat environment" in crowded Gaza City and surrounding
areas.
Israeli
officials say militants often use mosques, schools and other crowded places to
hide rockets and other weapons.
Indeed,
the U.N. Relief and Works Agency said it had found 20 rockets hidden in a
vacant school in Gaza, the first time the agency had made such a discovery.
The
group didn't say who placed the rockets there but condemned the act as a
"flagrant violation" of rules meant to keep U.N. aid workers safe.
For
the hundreds of people gathered for the boys' funeral Wednesday, however, the
legal and ethical arguments made little difference.
"I
felt as if the world had come to an end when I heard the news," said Ramiz
Bakr, the father of one of the boys. "I wish I had died before hearing he
was dead."
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