Hamas and Israel differ over whether ceasefire reached

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Gaza’s dominant Hamas movement said on Wednesday that Palestinian armed groups in the territory have agreed to a ceasefire as long as Israel also suspends hostilities..

Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas's deputy chief in Gaza, said in a statement that "a number of mediators intervened in the past hours and an agreement was reached to return to a ceasefire in Gaza", adding that the group was committed to it as long as Israel was.

Meanwhile, Israel's Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz on Wednesday denied a ceasefire had been reached. "Israel does not want the situation to deteriorate," he said, "but those who started the violence must stop it."

August 14, 2014: Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya speaks to the media upon his return to Gaza City from truce talks in Cairo. /VCG Photo

Authorities in southern Israel, where rocket warning sirens have sounded frequently since the Palestinian barrages began on Tuesday morning, said schools would open as usual.

The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the firing, saying it was in response to Israel's killing of dozens of Palestinians since March 30, most of them in Gaza border protests.

Condemnation

By late on Tuesday, Israeli aircraft had hit 55 facilities belonging to militant groups in Gaza, including a cross-border tunnel under construction, in response to the Palestinian barrages, the military said.

There were no reports of Palestinian casualties.

Israel said some 70 rockets and mortar bombs were fired from Gaza and three of its soldiers were wounded by shrapnel.

Violence has soared along the Gaza frontier in recent weeks, during which 116 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire at mass demonstrations calling for Palestinians' right to return to ancestral lands now occupied by Israel.

Palestinian relatives of Mohammed al-Radeia, a 30-year-old who was killed by recent Israeli tank fire into northern Gaza, mourn during his funeral in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, May 28, 2018. /VCG Photo

Amid international condemnation of its use of lethal force at the mass demonstrations that began on March 30, Israel said many of the dead were militants and that the army was repelling attacks on the border fence.

Palestinians and their supporters countered that most of the protesters were unarmed civilians and Israel was using excessive force against them.

A group of Palestinian activists set sail from Gaza City harbor on May 29, 2018. /VCG Photo

More than two million Palestinians are packed into Gaza Strip, a narrow coastal enclave. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers in 2005 but, citing security concerns, maintains tight control of Gaza's land and sea borders, which has reduced its economy to a state of collapse.

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters