Gaza’s Popular Resistance Committees yesterday agreed to halt rocket fire on Israel and abide by an Egyptian-brokered truce after four days of deadly clashes.
At a news conference in Gaza City, the PRC said its militants would respect a “temporary” ceasefire which was announced late on Sunday by Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
“We have temporarily stopped firing rockets at Israel according to the national consensus,” said a masked spokesman for the group, which was blamed by Israel for a series of bloody attacks near Eilat last week that killed eight Israelis and sparked the latest round of bloodshed.
But the PRC, whose leader was killed in a series of Israeli air strikes late last week, said talk of a more permanent truce was “out of the question. We have an open account with the enemy until it leaves Palestinian soil.”
The announcement came just hours after a senior Hamas official told AFP that the factions had hammered out a truce agreement in talks with Egyptian officials, which would be contingent on Israel stopping its air strikes on Gaza.
“We have reached an informal agreement to establish a ceasefire from tonight on condition that Israel halts its attacks,” he said.
In a formal announcement yesterday, Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu thanked both Egypt and UN envoy Robert Serry for helping “to stop the aggression against Gaza”.
“An agreement about a mutual truce was reached and we affirm that the Israeli occupation must commit to this truce because the factions told the government they are committed to it for as long as the occupation is,” he said.
On Sunday night, the Hamas-run security forces were “instructed to stop the shooting” against Israel, with police checking cars in the border area, and checkpoints set up at the entrance to every town in Gaza.
Israel police said seven rockets were fired from Gaza between midnight and 8 a.m. (2100-0500 GMT), but nothing after that.
Israel’s 15-member security Cabinet was reportedly called to an emergency meeting at 3 a.m. (0000 GMT), army radio said, at which the military’s top brass presented various options for stopping the rocket fire.
But after an hour of discussion, ministers decided against a ground operation for fear it “could trigger mass demonstrations in Egypt which could destabilise the regime in Cairo” and also harm Israeli interests in September when the Palestinian are planning to seek UN membership, the radio said.