GAZA CITY: A Hamas official said yesterday the Islamic activist group will not extend a six-month truce with Israel, as the two sides attacked each other.
Hamas says the cease-fire ends today, but Israel maintains that the unwritten truce accord does not have an expiration date. But violence has already resumed, though at a lower level than before the truce took effect.
Gaza fighters yesterday fired 11 rockets and six mortar shells toward Israel. Israel’s military launched at least two airstrikes against rocket squads.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said “there is no chance of extending the calm,” blaming Israel for the failure. It was not clear if this was Hamas’ final word. Though violence and casualties dropped significantly during the truce, neither side was satisfied.
Hamas complained that Israel never fully opened its border crossings to let vital cargo in and exports out, while Israel charged that Hamas used the time to replenish its arsenal with arms smuggled in through dozens of tunnels under the Egyptian border.
Palestinian factions, notably the Islamic Jihad, intensified their attacks at Israel on the last days of the truce, firing at least 10 rockets and mortar shells from Gaza yesterday by the late afternoon, and 21 on Wednesday by midnight.
Israel responded by launching two airstrikes at what it said was a rocket factory in southern Gaza and an Islamic Jihad building in northern Gaza early yesterday, and by shelling a group of rocket launchers in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya late Wednesday.
In a joint statement sent to the media yesterday the Palestinian groups said they would announce their formal reply this morning.
The statement was signed by the armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad as well as well as a number of smaller groups, including the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC).
Meanwhile, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) yesterday suspended food distribution to Palestinian refugees after it ran out of food stockpiles. The UNRWA which offers foods to more than 750,000 Palestinian refugees in Gaza said in a statement sent to the press that all crossings for goods into the Gaza Strip are closed and “no humanitarian supplies, fuel and other needed commodities are being allowed to enter.”
