Israeli negotiators arrived in Cairo on Monday for talks on ending a
month-old Gaza war with Palestinian militants after a new 72-hour truce
brokered by Egypt appeared to be holding.
The Israeli military
said one rocket was launched at the Tel Aviv area, in Israel's
commercial heartland, before the ceasefire went into effect at 21:00 on
Sunday and may have landed in the sea.
Hamas said it fired the missile.
A
senior Israeli government official had said on Sunday Israeli
negotiators would return to Cairo to resume indirect talks with the
Palestinians only if the truce held.
A month of war has killed 1 910 Palestinians and 67 Israelis while devastating wide tracts of densely populated Gaza.
Gaza
hospital officials say the Palestinian death toll has been mainly
civilian since the 8 July launch of Israel's military campaign to quell
Gaza rocket fire.
Israel has lost 64 soldiers and three civilians,
while heavy losses among civilians and the destruction of thousands of
homes in Gaza have drawn international condemnation.
The Israeli
delegation to the Cairo talks had flown home on Friday when the sides
failed to reach a deal to prolong a previous three-day truce.
A
Hamas official said on Sunday Palestinian factions had accepted Egypt's
call and that the Cairo talks would continue. Hamas spokesperson Sami
Abu Zuhri said that these new negotiations would be "the last chance"
for a deal.
Long-term truce
Hamas has
demanded an end to Israeli and Egyptian blockades of the Gaza Strip and
the opening of a seaport in the enclave, a project Israel says should be
dealt with only in any future talks on a permanent peace deal with the
Palestinians.
Egypt's foreign ministry urged "both sides to
exploit this truce to resume indirect negotiations immediately and work
towards a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire agreement".
Israeli
strategic affairs minister Yuval Steinitz said in a radio interview on
Monday that disarming Gaza militants was crucial to sustain a long-term
truce and he hoped this could be done by diplomacy rather than force.
"I
certainly hope that there will be a diplomatic solution. If there will
not be a diplomatic solution, I am convinced that sooner or later we
will have to opt for a military solution of taking temporary control of
Gaza to demilitarise it again", he told Israel Radio.
In Gaza,
shops began to open and traffic was normal as displaced families
returned to the homes they had been forced to abandon during Israeli
attacks, expressing hopes that this truce would last after a series of
failed ceasefires.
"God knows if it is permanent", said Abu
Salama, a resident of Gaza's Shejaia district, as he and his family
headed home on a donkey cart.
"A truce, no truce, it is becoming like Tom and Jerry. We want a solution", he said.
Reconstruction
The
new three-day ceasefire won praise from United Nations Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon, who hoped it might lead to a durable ceasefire.
Israeli
air strikes and shelling on Sunday killed nine Palestinians in Gaza,
medics said, in a third day of renewed fighting since the last truce
ended.
One air strike destroyed the home of Gaza City's mayor,
Nezar Hijazi, across the street from the Reuters bureau where reporters
and cameramen took cover as the explosion occurred. There were no
casualties in the attack because Israel telephoned warnings to residents
in the house and neighbouring buildings.
The Israeli military said it targeted 11 "terror squads" in Gaza, among them gunmen involved in or preparing to fire rockets.
Since
the previous ceasefire expired, Palestinian rocket and mortar salvoes
have focused on Israeli towns and communities near the Gaza frontier in
what seemed a strategy of sapping morale without triggering another
ground invasion of Gaza.
Residents of those communities, who had
been assured by the military they could return home when last week's
truce began, have accused Israeli authorities of misleading them.
The
violence of the past three days has been less intense than at the war's
outset, with reduced firing on both sides, raising hopes the conflict
could be nearing its end.
In the talks that convened in Cairo
earlier this month, Egypt has been meeting separately with each party,
as neither recognises the other. Hamas rejects Israel's right to exist
and Israel shuns Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
Another
sticking points in their talks has been Israel's demand for guarantees
that Hamas would not use any reconstruction supplies sent to Gaza to
build tunnels of the sort Palestinian fighters have used to infiltrate
Israel.
Hamas has demanded an end to the economically stifling
blockade of the enclave imposed by both Israel and Egypt, which also
sees the Islamist movement as a security threat.
Israel has resisted easing access to Gaza, suspecting Hamas could then restock with weapons from abroad.
Israeli
tanks and infantry left the enclave on Tuesday after the army said it
had completed its main mission of destroying more than 30 tunnels dug by
militants for cross-border attacks.
Four wounded Palestinians
were flown into Ankara for medical treatment on Monday, the first sign
of Turkey's promised plan to evacuate thousands from the Gaza Strip.
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