After a week of relative calm in the Gaza Strip, the hopes of a lasting ceasefire between Israel and Hamas wrecked again yesterday, resumed the offensive missiles in the conflict which has lasted a month and a half.
The negotiations between the Israeli government and the Islamist group that controls Gaza, with Egyptian mediation, to achieve a lasting solution to the conflict between collapsed mutual accusations. Hamas launched a barrage of rockets into southern Israel, while Israeli aircraft launched against targets north of the Palestinian enclave.
Three people, including a child, were killed and 40 wounded in an Israeli air raid on a family home, said Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Other Palestinians had been injured earlier in bombings in the northern, central and southern Gaza.
"The negotiations ended and the fault of Israel," the head of the Palestinian delegation, Azzam al-Ahmad said in Cairo in a press conference.
Meanwhile, the armed wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the rocket fire against Israel, especially against Tel Aviv and Beersheba southern. The Israeli army confirmed the shooting of these two cities, which no casualties. "We have launched some missiles at Ben Gurion airport" in Tel Aviv, said the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, quoted by the Arabic press.
While BPR is reported, a warning that Hamas was blowing winds of war was spreading. "[If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] does not understand the message and Gaza demands through political dialogue, we know very well what is the way to make you understand," said a spokesman.
With every missile and every bombing more and more dissipated continuity of discussions in Cairo, where the Egyptian government mediators sought without success bridge positions between two lists of demands not simple to reconcile. The Israelis decided to withdraw after the first rumblings.
"The negotiations in Cairo are based on the premise of a complete cessation of hostilities," said Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli government. "When Hamas breaks the ceasefire, also breaks the premise of dialogue. Thus, the Israeli team was withdrawn as a result of rocket attack," he added.
Negotiations seeking a long-term agreement between Israel and Hamas, after six weeks of fighting that left about 2,000 Palestinians dead, mostly civilians, and tens of thousands homeless. Israeli casualties totaling 64 soldiers and three civilians.
The Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said that "the army will continue to attack terrorist infrastructure and eliminating their ability in Gaza to restore security in the State of Israel."
In practice, the discussions were rather stagnant and when they resumed the offensive sides.
Hamas officials insisted that Israel was leading the negotiations to a dead end. "The occupants [by Israel] are responsible for the impasse that has been reached in the negotiations in Cairo because of its delaying tactics and lack of determination to reach an agreement," said the spokesman of the Islamist group Sami Abu Zuhri.
The Palestinians claim to the Egyptian and Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, Israel launched an offensive on 8 July. Israel, like Egypt, considers Hamas as a security threat and wants guarantees that any easing of border restrictions will not be used by militants as a conduit for arms.
Amid such intransigence, according to Palestinian media there was room for a truce for several weeks. Ashraf al-Ajrami, leader of the moderate faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, had summarized his demands to speak with an Israeli radio.
"The points are the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, the lifting of the blockade, opening of border crossings, solving electrical problems, importing construction material under international control and expansion of the fishery zone Gaza, "explained Al-Ajrami.
In Israel heard voices frustration. According to Interior Minister Gideon Saar, negotiations "do not serve the interests of Israeli security.
TWO LETTERS THAT HAVE THE DRAMA OF GAZA
"Cries of despair, rumblings of bombs, planes, bursts, processions through the streets with the dead, people fleeing, evacuating the area, disoriented, aimlessly, have become our daily bread of tears," wrote Jorge Argentine priest Hernández from Gaza, where he works. In two letters dated July 31 and August 8, published yesterday by the Catholic News Agency (AICA), Hernandez described dysfunctions of Gaza, where the sufferings multiply. "Water will scarce. Already are four days without electricity after the turbines were destroyed. Medicine is scarce in hospitals." Still, noted that "in times of war, solidarity is one of the virtues that shine among those affected. Problems, differences, grudges are often neglecting to meet together the painful circumstances that is crossed."
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