2023-05-13 23:19:00
Israel and the Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip agreed on Saturday on a ceasefire from 22 (16 from Argentina) mediated by Egyptbefore a new escalation of violence in the region that left more than 30 dead this week, including several children.
The agreement to end the bombing, which began on Tuesday with Israeli strikes against Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group considered a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the European Union (EU) and the United States, was confirmed by both the Palestinian groups as by the Israeli authorities.
“The resistance forces (in Gaza) conclude the conflict united and determined, and warn the enemy not to return to the policy of targeted killings. We are prepared with a firm hand on the trigger and, if they return, we will return,” said a Joint communiqué of the Palestinian factions in the Strip.
For its part, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the agreement and also stressed that “Calm will be answered with calm, and if Israel is attacked or provoked, it will do whatever it takes to defend itself.”.
In a statement, replicated by the Time newspaper, he thanked the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, for his “steadfast efforts” to achieve the ceasefire.
Egypt, the traditional mediator between the two parties, was working to achieve a truce, while international calls multiplied to end this escalation of violence, the most serious between the armed movements in Gaza and Israel since August 2022.
A day that began with attacks from both sides
He Israeli army and Palestinian groups had resumed firing rockets on Saturday.
After a relatively quiet night, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced the deaths of two men, aged 19 and 32, in the northern occupied West Bank, who it claimed were killed by Israeli soldiers in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, where the army made an attack in the morning before withdrawing.
Fatah, the movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas, claimed that both were members of its armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Witnesses in the Gaza Strip reported several Israeli shelling attacks on uninhabited areas east of Gaza City and in the north of the territory.
As reported by Israeli aviation, four Islamic Jihad command centers were bombed this Saturday in the Gaza Strip. The facilities were being used by the Palestinian fundamentalist group to launch projectiles into Israeli territory, they said.
In Gaza, ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement since 2007, the Interior Ministry accused Israel of focusing its attacks “on civilian targets and residential buildings.”
He also called on human rights organizations to put pressure “for Israel to put an end to crimes” that “are the responsibility of international justice.”
In the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, more than 2,000 protesters protested overnight against the waraccording to the AFP agency.
In Israel, rocket warning sirens sounded several times starting at 6 a.m. local time (midnight in Argentina) in areas bordering the Palestinian enclave.
The truce, on the eve of the anniversary
The truce was reached one day before the 75th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, on May 14, 1948. However, the commemoration was celebrated last April by the Hebrew authorities, which follow the Jewish calendar.
The This week’s escalation left 33 deadaccording to the latest balance of the health authorities of the Palestinian territory.
Among them are several fighters and six commanders of the Islamic Jihad, as well as members of the armed group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and at least 13 civilians, seven of them minors, according to the UN.
An 80-year-old woman also died in Rehovot, in central Israel, after a rocket exploded in her building.
The United States on Friday “firmly” condemned the firing of rockets into Israel from Gaza, and “insisted on the urgency of reaching a ceasefire.”
The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, had indicated at noon that they were going to continue their “missile firing on Israeli cities” in the face of the continuation of assassinations and bombardments” in inhabited areas.
Israeli bombardments caused damage in residential areas, such as Beit Lahia, in the north of the Strip, and Deir al Balah, further in the center.
In a statement, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called for “United Nations intervention to end Israeli crimes against (the) (Palestinian) people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”
According to the army, about a thousand rockets were fired at Israel, of which about 300 were intercepted by the anti-aircraft defense system, while the inhabitants of the areas near Gaza have been living in shelters for four days.
The Gaza Strip is an impoverished Palestinian territory where 2.3 million people live. Since 2007, when the Islamist Hamas movement took full control of the enclave, it has been subject to a strict Israeli blockade.
The territory has been the scene of several wars with Israel since 2008.
In August 2022, three days of clashes between Israel and Islamic Jihad killed 49 Palestinians, including at least 19 children, according to the UN. More than a thousand rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel, leaving three wounded.
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