CAIRO -- Israel and Hamas agreed to extend a temporary cease-fire for five days, Egyptian and Palestinian officials announced Wednesday, permitting the sides to continue to negotiate a deal to end the fighting in Gaza.
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Yet even as the extension was announced minutes before a previous truce was set to expire at midnight, violence spiked, with Palestinian militants firing five rockets at Israel and Israel targeting sites across the Gaza Strip in response. It was not immediately clear whether the violence would affect the cease-fire extension.
Egypt's Foreign Ministry and the head of the Palestinian negotiating team announced the extension, which began at midnight Gaza time. A spokesman for Israel's prime minister had no immediate comment.
"We have agreed on a cease-fire for five days," said Azzam al-Ahmad, the head of the Palestinian delegation to the Cairo talks. He noted that there had been "significant progress" on a longer-term truce but that disagreements remained over the wording on security arrangements, reconstruction efforts for the Gaza Strip and a permissible fishing area.
Hamas is seeking an end to a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt in 2007. The blockade has greatly limited the movement of Palestinians in and out of the territory of 1.8 million people. It also has restricted the flow of goods into Gaza and blocked virtually all exports.
Israel says the closure is necessary to prevent arms smuggling. It wants Hamas to disarm and be prevented from re-arming.
Hamas has recovered from previous rounds of violence with Israel, including a three-week ground operation in January 2009 and another week-long air offensive in 2012. It now controls an arsenal of thousands of rockets, some with long ranges and powerful payloads. Gaza militants have fired more than 3,000 rockets toward Israel during this fighting.
Neither side is likely to see all of its demands met, but an Egyptian proposal that was introduced Tuesday offered some solutions. A member of the Palestinian delegation at the Cairo talks said the proposal calls for easing parts of the Israeli blockade of Gaza, offering some relief to the territory.
The proposal would leave Hamas' demand for a full lifting of the blockade and Israeli calls for Hamas to disarm for later negotiations.
The Palestinian negotiator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the negotiations, said he had some reservations about the proposal and would try to improve it.
As the talks continued, Hamas indicated that it was sticking to its demands.
In recorded remarks broadcast on Hamas radio Wednesday, Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, said "achieving a permanent truce can come only through lifting the blockade on Gaza."
Israel, meanwhile, said it was ready to respond to any renewed fire from Gaza.
"We will continue to defend, continue to operate. We will be ready for any effort, any way, at any time," said Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz.
The Israeli military reinforced its troops along the border with Gaza before the midnight end of the initial cease-fire, and Israeli media reported that the army had put a number of units on alert for possible deployment.
The fighting began July 8 with Israel's air campaign against Gaza's Hamas rulers, whom Israel blamed for the kidnapping and murder in June of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. Nine days later, Israel sent in ground troops to destroy Hamas' underground cross-border tunnels constructed for attacks inside Israel.
The fighting has so far killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, Palestinian and United Nations officials have said. On the Israeli side, 67 people have died, all but three of them soldiers.
Israel has received international criticism over the use of battlefield weapons in densely populated areas of Gaza during the fighting, resulting in hundreds of civilians being killed and injured. The Israelis have blamed the casualties on Hamas militants, accusing them of launching rockets from populated areas.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has taken a tough stance on Israel, especially concerning deadly attacks on U.N. schools that were sheltering civilians. But he has also repeatedly demanded that Gaza militants stop firing rockets at Israel and blamed Hamas for violating an earlier cease-fire.
At the United Nations on Wednesday, leaders of major Jewish organizations accused Ban of being one-sided in his reaction to the Gaza conflict.
A delegation of 11 Jewish organizations met with the U.N. chief to express concern, presenting a letter that listed what the delegation said were 19 violations of international law by Hamas that have gone ignored, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group with an office in New York.
Chief among the demands was a U.N. investigation into rocket attacks on Israel's civilian population and Hamas' use of some U.N. schools. Rockets were found in three empty U.N. schools during the conflict.
"We are deeply frustrated with the one-sided narrative that is being presented by the United Nations," Hier said after the meeting with Ban.
He said the delegation was particularly concerned about a statement Ban made Tuesday, when he said the "fighting has raised serious questions about Israel's respect for the principles of distinction and proportionality." Those principles of international law require distinguishing between civilians and combatants and responding proportionately to an attack.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: "The secretary-general reiterated that he fully understands Israel's legitimate security concerns but also stressed the need to show restraint in their actions in Gaza so as to avoid civilian casualties."
"He also reminded them that he has, on many occasions, condemned the rocket attacks by Hamas into Israel as well as the tunnels," Dujarric said in a statement. "The secretary-general told them that the nightmare of the last four weeks has been a terrible reminder that only a negotiated political settlement can bring security and peace to Israelis and Palestinians alike."
The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, which operates independently of the secretary-general, recently appointed a panel to investigate human rights violations related to the Israel and Hamas fighting.
The Anti-Defamation League, one of the Jewish groups that attended the meeting with Ban, called the panel a "farce" with an outcome that is "all but ordained."
The group also released a report Wednesday that documents what it called a "dramatic" surge in violence and vitriol against Jews around the world. In Morocco, for example, a rabbi was attacked by someone angry over Israeli airstrikes, the report said. In the Netherlands, a Holocaust memorial was defaced with "free Gaza" graffiti.
While many in the international community have sided with the Palestinians in the latest conflict, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo kicked off a two-day visit to Israel on Wednesday, where he expressed "total solidarity" with the country.
Speaking at the residence of newly inaugurated President Reuven Rivlin, Cuomo said Israel has the right to defend itself against rocket fire from Hamas and Islamic militants.
"We understand the attack that you are under," Cuomo said. "Everyone wishes for peace and that's our eternal hope, but we also understand your need to do what is right by your people in defense, and we're here to support you in that."
Later Wednesday, Cuomo met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who praised Cuomo and the American government for "standing on the right side of the moral divide."
Information for this article was contributed by Mohammed Daraghmeh, Tia Goldenberg, Ibrahim Barzak, Trenton Daniel, Yousur Alhlou and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Laura King, Batsheva Sobelman, Maher Abukhater and Amro Hassan of the Los Angeles Times.
A Section on 08/14/2014