GAZA CITY, 20 May 2007 — Palestinian factions reached a new cease-fire deal yesterday to end a week of violence that has left more than 50 dead as Israel continued to shell and bomb targets across the Gaza Strip, killing at least three Palestinians.
Gunmen began to abandon rooftop positions and to remove street barricades under the supervision of Egyptian mediators and representatives of different factions, accompanied by the military adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Gen. Abdel Razzaq Al-Majaida.
It was the fifth such deal since violence erupted Sunday but the first in which steps were actually taken to implement it.
While announcing the truce, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s spokesman Ghazi Hamad said “armed men will leave (their positions in) buildings and streets, will remove roadblocks and release hostages on both sides.”
The deal was struck at the Egyptian mission in Gaza in the presence of Haniyeh, who had been in contact with exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal as well as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Abbas.
A rocket-propelled grenade fired by Hamas fighters struck an Israeli Army bulldozer inside the Gaza Strip as Israel launched new airstrikes. The grenade attack, which lightly wounded one Israeli soldier, was the first by the group against Israeli troops who have taken up positions just inside Gaza’s northern border to try to stop Palestinians from firing rockets at nearby Israeli towns.
Israel’s bombing campaign against Hamas has killed at least 18 Palestinians since Wednesday.
— Additional input from agencies
