GAZA CITY, 9 July 2006 — Israel yesterday rejected a Hamas call for a cease-fire and demanded the return of an abducted soldier.
Officials in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would not agree to a truce until Hamas freed Cpl. Gilad Shalit, whose capture provoked Israel to invade the Gaza Strip and bombard it with artillery barrages and airstrikes.
Hours later, Israel killed three members of a Palestinian family, including a six-year-old girl, in a missile attack in Gaza City. The girl, her elder brother and her mother were killed in the airstrike. Despite initial denials, the Israeli Army later confirmed carrying out an airstrike in the neighborhood of Sejayun.
A statement from Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s office had earlier said: “To get out of the current crisis, it is necessary that all parties restore calm on the basis of mutually stopping all military operations.”
Haniyeh’s statement called for restarting negotiations, which had been led by Egyptian mediators over the fate of Shalit.
The governing Hamas movement and other Palestinian groups have demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the soldier. Palestinian fighters pulled out of negotiations when Israel ignored their deadline.
Hamas’ official spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, welcomed Haniyeh’s call for a cease-fire and said the onus was now on Israel.
Israeli forces have pulled out of the northern Gaza towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the Erez industrial zone as well as three former Israeli settlements.
Israel had seized the area earlier this week, creating what amounted to a buffer zone to try to make it harder for Hamas fighters to fire their rockets into Ashkelon, one of Israel’s main coastal cities, and other population centers near Gaza.
Rocket fire has not stopped, however.
“We are acting at our own discretion and we do not rule out a return to these areas,” an army spokesman said. “The operation is not over.” Israel has been under international pressure to scale back its military operations, which have so far killed more than 40 Palestinians. One Israeli soldier has also been killed. While ground forces have left the north, Israeli troops remain in southern Gaza, at the disused international airport, as well as near the Karni commercial crossing east of Gaza City.
In violence earlier in the day, four Palestinians were killed, including a policeman in uniform. Several other Palestinians were wounded on Friday night, including another policeman.
The clashes near Karni took place after Israeli troops and tanks moved into the area in search of tunnels that could be used for smuggling arms, the army said.
Israel has vowed to use everything in its power to increase the pressure on the Hamas-led government to free Shalit and to stop rocket attacks.
Hamas fighters were swift to claim victory after the pullback. “The Israeli soldier is still missing and we are firing twice as many rockets as before the operation,” said Abu Obayda, a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, addressing a press conference surrounded by masked men carrying Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades.
— Additional input from agencies
