CAIRO -- Israel and the Hamas militant group Sunday accepted Egypt's call for a new 72-hour cease-fire, clearing the way for the resumption of talks on a long-term truce to end a month of heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 2,000.
The announcement marked the second time in less than a week that the sides had agreed to Egyptian mediation. A similar three-day truce last week collapsed during renewed violence over the weekend.
The truce took effect at midnight Jerusalem time, preceded by heavy rocket fire toward Israel. In Cairo, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the new, temporary cease-fire was intended to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the repair of essential infrastructure and to allow a window for the resumption of "indirect, immediate and continuous negotiations" for a "complete and permanent cease-fire."
The Palestinian negotiators have remained in Cairo. An Israeli official said the Israeli delegation, which left Cairo on Friday morning, would return today if the cease-fire held overnight. Contacts between Israel and Egypt continued by telephone in the meantime.
Both delegations have since returned to Cairo.
Hamas is seeking an end to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade against Gaza, while Israel wants Hamas to dismantle its arsenal of rockets and other weapons.
Palestinian negotiators accepted the proposal early Sunday after meeting with Egyptian officials throughout the weekend. Israeli officials concurred later.
Qais Abdelkarim, a member of the Palestinian delegation, said indirect talks with the Israelis would begin today "with the hope of reaching a lasting cease-fire." The goal, he added, was to end the blockade, which he called "the reason for the war."
Given the high civilian death toll and the devastation in Gaza, he said it would be a "farce" for the delegation to return with an armistice and little else.
"People have been suffering and tolerating all that with the hope that this will lead to the relaxation or lifting of the blockade," he said.
In the hours before the cease-fire began, Palestinian militants and the Israeli military continued to exchange blows, but on a much smaller scale than the fierce fighting of the past month.
The Israeli military said it struck more than 30 targets in Gaza on Sunday, including what it described as 11 "terror squads," some of which were preparing to fire rockets.
At least seven Palestinians were killed Sunday, including four who died in two Israeli airstrikes in the southern and northern Gaza Strip on Sunday evening. Three of those were killed in an airstrike aimed at a motorcycle in Khan Younis, and one was killed in a strike that hit agricultural land near Jabaliya, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.
Nearly 30 rockets were fired at southern Israel on Sunday, the Israeli military said. Several were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, and most fell on open ground, causing no injuries.
"If we go back to fighting, it will mainly be very low-key firing at this point," Gaza Health Ministry official Ashraf al-Kidra said about the end to the current cease-fire. "Israel has an interest in the cease-fire at this point, and Hamas is interested because it now needs to attend to all the damage in Gaza."
More than 1,900 Palestinians have been killed, including hundreds of civilians. On the Israeli side, 67 people have been killed, including three civilians. Combined, nearly 10,000 people have been wounded and thousands of homes destroyed.
Several wounded people have been evacuated from Gaza to Turkey for treatment, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Erdogan did not provide details, but the state-run Anadolu Agency said a Turkish air ambulance left for Israel late Sunday to transport four people to Turkey for treatment in hospitals in the capital of Ankara.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey was working to establish an air corridor to bring the seriously wounded to Turkey.
SCALING BACK DEMANDS
Israel had walked away from cease-fire talks over the weekend.
"Israel will not negotiate under fire," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier Sunday, warning that his country's military campaign "will take time."
In remarks broadcast at the start of Israel's weekly Cabinet meeting, which Netanyahu held at the military's headquarters in Tel Aviv, he said the military operation was continuing.
"At no stage did we declare its conclusion," he said.
Last week's talks failed in part because Israel rejected Hamas' demand for a complete end to the blockade. Israel said the closure is necessary to prevent arms smuggling, and officials do not want to make any concessions that would allow Hamas to declare victory.
A senior Palestinian negotiator acknowledged that the Palestinians would make more modest demands this time around. He said they will seek an end to the bloodshed in Gaza and an easing -- but not an end -- to the blockade, which was imposed by Israel in 2006.
"We might not get everything we want, particularly on freedom of movement. But we believe the Israelis and the world have gotten the point that Gazans should live normally and things should be much better than today," the negotiator said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing internal Palestinian deliberations.
Israel says Hamas must disarm. Hamas has said handing over its arsenal, which is believed to include several thousand remaining rockets, is out of the question.
Egypt also has kept its border with Gaza largely sealed, and the twin blockades have confined most Gazans to the impoverished enclave of 1.8 million and crippled their economy by restricting the movement of goods.
An Egyptian crackdown on smuggling tunnels along Gaza's southern border has made things even tougher by robbing Hamas of its key economic pipeline and weapons conduit. Gaza's unemployment rate surpasses 50 percent, and Hamas is unable to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of workers.
An easing of the blockade could mean an increased role for Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces were ousted by Hamas seven years ago. Officials said the rival Palestinian factions were already exploring options that would give Abbas, who now governs in the West Bank, a foothold in Gaza, including the likely control of its border crossing with Egypt.
Ephraim Kam, a senior research fellow at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies, said an accord that eases the blockade may hinge on allowing the Palestinian Authority, headed by Abbas, to take control of border crossings.
"Unless Egypt exerts pressure on Hamas to agree to giving Abbas a major role in controlling the borders, it's going to be difficult to reach any sort of compromise," said Kam, who is a retired Israeli army intelligence colonel.
At a minimum, Israel will want guarantees that the rocket fire will stop. A 2012 cease-fire promised an easing of the blockade but was never implemented -- in part because of sporadic rocket attacks by various armed factions in Gaza.
Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said Hamas could get the blockade lifted by accepting longstanding international demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.
"They want to get legitimacy as a terrorist organization without accepting the requirements of the international community," she said at a news conference.
In the West Bank, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy was killed Sunday by Israeli soldiers during a protest near Hebron. The Israeli military said the soldiers had been responding to protesters who were throwing rocks and that the shooting was being investigated. Witnesses said the boy had not been involved in the protest and was standing on the road in front of his home.
The current Gaza conflict escalated from the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June. Israel blamed the killings on Hamas and launched an arrest campaign, rounding up hundreds of its members in the West Bank. Hamas and other militants unleashed rocket fire from Gaza.
Information for this article was contributed by Mohammed Daraghmeh, Josef Federman, Sarah El Deeb, Ibrahim Barzak, Daniel Estrin and Yousur Alhlou of The Associated Press; by Isabel Kershner, Kareem Fahim, Merna Thomas and Fares Akram of The New York Times; and by David Wainer of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 08/11/2014