WUNRN
ISRAEL-PALESTINE - GAZA FIGHTING
RESUMES AFTER CEASEFIRE ENDS - WOMEN & CHILDREN CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE
Israel has hit the Gaza Strip with missiles and artillery for the
first time in three days, while Palestinian fighters launched a barrage of
rockets at Israel, just hours after a ceasefire between the two sides expired.
An Israeli air strike killed a
10-year-old child in Gaza City on Friday, the first death reported since a
72-hour truce expired at 8am (05:00 GMT), Palestinian medics said. At least six
other people were wounded.
The Israeli army said more than
30 rockets were fired into southern Israel after the truce ended.
Three of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence
system. Two Israelis were wounded, the army said.
Thousands of
Palestinians fled their homes east of Gaza City amid the renewed Israeli
attacks, witnesses reported.
The ceasefire expired as no
progress was made in the Egyptian-mediated talks aimed at finding a durable
solution to the month-long fighting.
Talks among the main Palestinian
factions in Cairo were still ongoing, just after they announced their refusal
to extend the 72-hour truce.
"They are discussing with
the Egyptians the demands that haven't been met and the sticking points in the
negotiations," Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh, reporting from West
Jerusalem, said.
"All the Palestinian
factions, including Hamas, have agreed not to renew the ceasefire because
[Israel] is refusing to accommodate our demands, but negotiations continue in
Cairo," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told the AFP news agency.
Israel, whose representatives
were also present for the talks in the Egyptian capital, had said it was ready
to "indefinitely" extend the ceasefire. Israeli negotiators pulled
out from the talks on Friday morning before the expiry of the ceasefire.
"We understand from senior
Israeli officials that Israel would not continue the negotiations while it is
coming under fire, and that these negotiations would remain frozen as long as
Hamas and other Palestinian factions are firing rockets," El-Shamayleh.
"It seems that the Israelis,
for now, are boycotting the talks," she said.
'Deeply distressed'
The Palestinian side laid out a
number of demands, starting with the lifting of Israel's eight-year blockade on
Gaza. They also want the release of around 125 key prisoners held in Israeli
jails.
Despite the withdrawal of all its troops from Gaza by the time the
three-day truce began early on Tuesday, Israel has retained forces along the
border, ready to respond to any resumption of fighting.
Four weeks of military assault on
Gaza has claimed the lives of at least 1,893 Palestinians, according to Gaza
officials. UN figures indicate that 73 percent of the Palestinian victims were
civilians. Of that number, at least 429 were children.
On the Israeli side, three
civilians were killed by rockets fired from Gaza while at least 64 soldiers
died in the fighting.
Ayman Taha, a former spokesman
for Hamas - the son of one of the group's founders - was found dead on Thursday
in a neighbourhood of Gaza City that was heavily bombed by Israel, the movement
said.
Speaking in Jerusalem after a
visit to Gaza, International Committee of the Red Cross president Peter Maurer
said he was "deeply distressed and shocked" at the impact of
violence, saying the scale of the civilian losses must not happen again.
He also suggested there may have
been violations of international humanitarian law.
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