Gaza Update: March 14, 2014

Gaza Update: March 14, 2014

In the last hour, Israeli warplanes targeted the following sites in the Gaza Strip:
• The military Site "Abu Atayah" of Nasser Saladin Brigades, west of Rafah.
• The military Site "Saad Sayel" of Qassam Brigades east of Rafah.
• A piece of agricultural land near the site of "Safina" northwest of Gaza City.

No injuries have been reported as a result of the attacks.

In response, Palestinian resistance have launched new rocket attacks, and Israeli planes are flying west of Gaza.

The escalation of hostilities in the past few days was set off by an Israeli airstrike which killed three members of islamic Jihad on Tuesday. Ismail Abu Judah, 23, Shahir Abu Shanab, 24, and 33-year-old Abd al-Shafi Muammar were all killed in southeast Khan Younis near the Sufa crossing.

Khaled al-Batch, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, last night (NZ time) announced they had agreed to restore the calm, but the truce was shortlived, perhaps because of the way it was negotiated.

Ma'an reported that an Egyptian official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that Egyptian national security services contacted Israel and the Islamic Jihad, but not Hamas, in order to negotiate the re-activation of the 2012 ceasefire.

al-Batch had told Associated Press, “As long as the occupation [Israel] honors the calm, we will honor the calm and instructions are being given right now to al-Quds brigades, our military wing, about this understanding.”

Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad told al-Mayadeen channel that the group was "not informed by Egypt about any agreement, and the Egyptian side should have coordinated with Hamas."

Other signs that hostilities are likely to continue are that on Thursday, Israeli armed forces called up its air force reserves, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The Israeli Cabinet met on Thursday morning to dicsuss the situation in Gaza, and the decision to call the reserves was made by Israeli defense minister Moshe Ya'alon. Haaretz noted that calling up reserves requires the approval of the Knesset security and foreign committee, and a waiting period of 48 hours.

Only one thing is certain - as long as Israel coninues to occupy Palestinian territory, as long as Israel and Egypt continue their siege of the Gaza Strip, and as long as the international community continues to ignore Israel's gross breaches of international law and the impending humanitarian crisis in Gaza, peace will be but a dream.

ENDS

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