Israel-Gaza violence ebbs as truce takes effect

(AP) Israel-Gaza violence ebbs as truce takes effect
By AMY TEIBEL
Associated Press
JERUSALEM
Israel halted its airstrikes against Gaza Strip militants early Tuesday and rocket fire from the Palestinian territory ebbed as a cease-fire ending four days of clashes appeared to be taking effect.

Both sides had indicated they have no interest in seeing the fighting spiral into all-out war, and an Egyptian security official reported that Egyptian intelligence officials had brokered a truce.

There was no official truce announcement from Israel or Gaza’s Hamas rulers, but Israeli Cabinet Minister Matan Vilnai told Israel Radio the latest outbreak of violence “appears to be behind us.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a speech Tuesday evening suggested that Israel would refrain from any new strikes unless attacked. “Our message is clear, quiet will be met with quiet,” Netanyahu said.

He warned, however, that “anyone who breaks (the peace) or even tries to break it – our cross-hairs will find him.”

He thanked the 1 million residents of Israel’s south for their resilience under fire from Palestinian militants who according to the Israeli military launched about 300 rockets across the border over the past four days.

Earlier in the day, Daoud Shihab, a spokesman for the Islamic Jihad group responsible for much of the rocket fire, said that “the Egyptian efforts succeeded this morning and a deal was reached.”

Months of quiet along the Gaza-Israel border were shattered on Friday with Israel’s killing of a militant commander in Gaza whom it accused of plotting to attack Israelis.

At least 24 Palestinians, including at least four civilians, died in the cross-border exchanges that followed, with the cause of another civilian’s death in dispute. There were no Israeli fatalities, but the lives of people in the south were disrupted by frequent sirens warning them to take cover from incoming rockets.

Israel’s new short-range rocket interceptor, the Iron Dome, destroyed dozens of rockets in flight.

The military said it carried out no airstrikes after the cease-fire took hold. They said some 12 rockets were fired at Israel after that early morning deadline, causing no injuries.

Sporadic rocket fire from Gaza would not necessarily compromise the truce because militant groups are splintered and orders do not trickle down from a single commander. Still, as a precaution, schools in southern Israel that serve 200,000 students remained closed for a third day.

Although the fighting on the ground subsided, verbal sparring over the terms of the cease-fire persisted.

The Egyptian security official, speaking early Tuesday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said Israel had agreed to stop targeting militants as a condition of the truce. Islamic Jihad leader Khaled Batch said the same.

But Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak brushed away that assertion.

And senior defense official Amos Gilad, who was involved in the truce talks, said no such commitments were given. “Quiet will be met with quiet,” Gilad told Army Radio. But “if Israel has to defend its citizens, it will do so without hesitation.”

Because the two sides shun each other, the truce is not formal and there is no signed document that can serve as a reference.

Gaza’s Hamas rulers had kept out of the fighting, letting militants from the Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees carry out the attacks on Israel.

Hamas wants to avoid a full-scale offensive against Gaza like the one Israel launched in December 2008, fearing a major conflict could undermine its control of the territory it violently overran five years ago.

But Israel considers Hamas responsible for all attacks from Gaza and notes that the militant group, which refuses to renounce violence against Israel, has amassed a bigger and better weapons stockpile since the war.

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Associated Press Writer Ibrahim Barzak contributed to this report from Gaza City, Gaza Strip.