01/08/2014 16:02
Fighting resumes in Gaza after 72-hour cease-fire violated
A cease-fire in Gaza appeared to be unraveling Friday only hours after it took effect as both sides accused each other of violating the fledgling truce.
Eight Palestinians were killed and 15 others injured by Israeli artillery shelling in Rafah in southern Gaza on Friday, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported, calling it a “violation of the ceasefire.”
An Israeli official told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Hamas has been attacking Israeli forces inside Gaza on Friday morning, describing it as “a grave violation” of the cease-fire.
The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment on the Palestinian reports of shelling in Rafah. But it said that rockets and mortars had been fired into Israel later Friday.
The humanitarian truce had been announced Thursday by the United Nations and United States, after weeks of fighting and more than 1,500 deaths in Gaza, most of them civilians. It came into effect at 8 a.m. Friday in Gaza.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, said the halt to hostilities was planned to last for 72 hours and provide an opportunity to seek a more lasting solution to the conflict.