Israel agrees Gaza aid truce after children killed on beach

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israel agreed to a UN
request to halt its bombardment of Gaza for
five hours on humanitarian grounds, after its
naval strikes killed four children on a beach
Wednesday.
The punishing strikes aimed at halting cross-
border rocket fire by Hamas militants had
resumed after Egyptian-brokered truce efforts
collapsed Tuesday.
Israel’s campaign, now in its ninth day, has
killed 220 Palestinians so far, with a Gaza-
based human rights group saying over 80
percent of them were civilians.
In the same period, militants have fired more
than 1,200 rockets at Israel. They claimed
their first Israeli life on Tuesday.
Hamas rejected the Egyptian truce efforts,
saying it had not been included in the
discussions.
The Israeli army announced it would halt its
bombardment of Gaza between 10:00 am and
3:00 pm (0700 to 1200 GMT) Thursday,
following a UN request for a humanitarian
truce.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East
peace process Robert Serry earlier told Israel’s
Channel Two television, that he had asked the
military for a “humanitarian pause” in its
Gaza offensive and that, if it agreed, he would
ask Gaza militants to follow suit.
Hamas said it was considering the request.
“Hamas has been informed about the UN
proposal for a truce of several hours
tomorrow,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri
told AFP.
“The proposal is being studied and when a
decision has been taken, it will be announced
officially in a statement.”
As part of the peace initiative, a Hamas
official met Egyptian leaders while Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas arrived in Cairo to
join the diplomatic efforts.
In addition to the four killed children, several
people were also wounded in an apparent
Israeli naval bombardment of a beach in Gaza
City, medics said.
The first strike hit at around 1300 GMT,
prompting terrified children and adults on the
beach to scatter. A second and third struck as
they ran, setting fire to huts on the beach.
The strikes appeared to be the result of
shelling by the Israeli navy against an area
with small shacks used by fishermen.
Several children ran inside a hotel where at
least three had shrapnel injuries.
The four bodies were later taken to Abu Hasira
mosque, near where the boys had died.
The boys, all from the Bakr family, were laid
out, wrapped in the yellow flags of the Fatah
party, in front of mourners.
Several hours after the strikes, the Israeli
military described the deaths as “tragic” and
said it was investigating the incident.
“Based on preliminary results, the target of
this strike was Hamas terrorist operatives,” the
military said in a statement.
“The reported civilian casualties from this
strike are a tragic outcome.”
- Nowhere to run to -
The Israeli military dropped flyers and sent
text messages warning 100,000 people in
northeastern Gaza to evacuate their homes
ahead of an air campaign targeting “terror
sites and operatives” in Zeitun and Shejaiya,
two flashpoint districts east of Gaza City.
An identical message was sent to Beit Lahiya
in the north, echoing a similar army warning
on Sunday, when more than 17,000 residents
of the north fled for their lives, most seeking
refuge in UN-run schools.
But for patients at Al-Wafa hospital in
Shejaiya, the warning simply provoked even
more fear.
“We cannot leave our patients, they are
helpless,” director Basman Alashi told AFP,
saying most of them were completely
incapacitated.
“There is no place safe in Gaza. If a hospital is
not safe, where is?” he said as the sound of
nearby shelling rattled the windows.
Limited numbers were seen heeding the Israeli
warnings. Children picked up many of the
flyers and played with them.
“Where should we go?” asked Faisal Hassan, a
father of five who lives in Zeitun.
Hamas dismissed the warning as a scare
tactic, telling residents there was “no need to
worry.”
- Hamas in fresh Cairo talks -
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on
Tuesday to step up the military campaign
after Hamas dismissed an Egyptian ceasefire
proposal, firing scores of rockets over the
border despite the army holding its fire for six
hours.
“This would have been better resolved
diplomatically… but Hamas leaves us no
choice but to expand and intensify the
campaign against it,” he said.
His security cabinet authorised the call-up of
another 8,000 reservists, media reports said,
joining 43,000 reserve troops who have
already been mobilised.
Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior member of Abbas’s
Fatah movement, said a Hamas official was in
Cairo to hold talks with Egyptian officials.
Ahmad expressed hope that the talks in Cairo
would “crystallise a definite formula for an
Egyptian initiative” or clarify its plan, which
had proposed an end to hostilities from 0600
GMT Tuesday.
In a joint news conference with Netanyahu in
Jerusalem, visiting Italian Foreign Minister
Federica Mogherini said she hoped that
Hamas would “revise its position and accept
the proposal in the coming hours or days.”
Abbas himself later arrived in Cairo to join the
diplomatic efforts and was slated to travel to
Ankara on Thursday in search of regional
support for an immediate end to the fighting.
Also in Cairo, Middle East peace Quartet
envoy Tony Blair met Egyptian President Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Sameh
Shoukri.
Egypt’s initiative was designed “to allow all
the issues that are at the heart of this
problem… to be dealt with in a thorough and
proper way,” Blair said.
Separately, US Secretary of State John Kerry
said Washington was doing “everything in our
power” to end the bloodshed in Gaza.
“Our concern is to have a legitimate ceasefire
and see if we can find a way to stop the
conflict and killing so we can get to the real
issues that are underlying it,” he told
reporters, adding that he has been speaking to
Netanyahu and Arab officials.