Gaza militants said yesterday they were awaiting Israeli approval of a Cairo-brokered truce to their seven-day conflict as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in the region to make an urgent push for peace.
The emerging signs of a deal to end seven days of violence that have claimed the lives of 136 Palestinians came as the Israeli army confirmed its first two fatalities from rocket attacks while another missile landed harmlessly just south of Jerusalem.
Optimistic negotiators had initially said that a deal could be announced in Cairo later yesterday following days of negotiations brokered by an Egyptian government that is keen to make sure the unrest does not spill over to its volatile Sinai territory.
“There will be a joint press conference between Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the Egyptian mediators to announce the truce,” an Islamic Jihad source told AFP in Gaza City. A Hamas source separately confirmed the announcement.
But Hamas later said in a statement that Israel had still not responded to the Palestinian proposal as of 10pm.
“No agreement has been reached until now and it might not happen tonight. All options are open. Our people and the resistance are ready for anything,” Hamas leader Izzat al-Rishq tweeted.
Egypt – its new Islamic Government now seen as the Palestinians’ main protector – also initially said the Israeli “aggression” would end within hours. But Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s spokesman later toned down that optimism by explaining that Cairo “hopes there will be a settlement soon”.
Israeli television also cited local diplomatic sources as saying that a truce announcement would probably have to wait at least until today.
The bloodshed meanwhile showed no signs of abating as the military pressed on with its bombardment of northern Gaza positions from where most of the militants’ rockets have been launched.
The Israeli for their part lost two soldiers to rocket attacks that continued unabated for the seventh day. The army said nearly 800 rockets have hit Israeli territory since the worst outbreak of Gaza violence in four years broke out last Wednesday.
The incessant Israeli bombing killed another 26 Palestinians yesterday in attacks that also claimed the lives of two cameramen of the Hamas-owned Al-Aqsa TV station.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said flatly yesterday that it was time for Hamas – the Islamist movement which rules Gaza – to choose between peace and further bloodshed.
“Our hand is outstretched in peace to those of our neighbours who want to make peace with us,” Israel’s rightwing premier said in a statement. “And the other hand is firmly grasping the sword of David.”
A senior Hamas official told AFP in Cairo that a key sticking point was whether Israel would begin easing its six-year-old blockade of Gaza coinciding with the truce or at a later date. “A compromise solution is for there to be agreement on lifting the siege, and that it would be implemented later at a specified time,” he said.