For many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the worst case scenario happened on Friday, as confrontations between Hamas and Israel resumed once more after a 72-hour ceasefire expired at 0500 GMT.
Israel's military stated a series rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Friday morning. Media reports varied regarding the success of Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system in intercepting two of these rockets; some stated defences brought down one while others reported that both were downed.
According to a Reuters report, Israel said Hamas fired at least 18 rockets on Friday, while factions in Gaza claimed ten were fired.
Following the rocket strikes the Israeli military renewed its air strikes against the coastal enclave following an order by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Israel's troops to "retaliate forcefully."
Israel's aerial and ground offensive in Gaza had killed roughly 2,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 10,000 before the three-day lull in the violence. Much of the territory’s key infrastructure has been damaged and tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced by the violence. Sixty-seven Israelis were also killed in the violence.
Hopes of extending ceasefire dashed
The three-day ceasefire was brokered by Egypt on Tuesday between Israel and the Palestinian delegation in a bid to boost negotiations over a long-lasting ceasefire.
On Thursday, both parties published contradicting statements pertaining to the extension of the ceasefire, leading to confusion over the subject.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Tel Aviv had agreed to extend the ceasefire beyond Friday's deadline, although he did not specify how much longer it could be in place.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, the Cairo-based deputy of Hamas' political bureau and member of the delegation in Cairo, tweeted late Wednesday that there was no deal over extending the truce.
Azzam Al-Ahmed, a leading figure in the Fatah movement and leader of the delegation, said that "nothing new happened" in regards to renewing the truce, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported Thursday morning. Al-Ahmed is the head of the Palestinian delegation currently in Cairo.
An official told AFP on Friday that Israel "will not negotiate under fire." The source claimed that Israel had informed Egypt of its willingness to extend the truce by another three days before "Hamas breached the ceasefire."
Hamas spokesman Ezzat Al-Rasheq tweeted on Friday that the "resistance movements did not accept extending the truce." Nevertheless, he said that talks in Egypt would continue.
Al-Ahmed had also emphasised that negotiations will resume, Egypt's state-run news agency MENA stated.
Cairo talks ongoing despite violence
On Monday, the Palestinian delegation officially presented its demands for a permanent ceasefire including an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, halting airstrikes, a lifting of the Israeli blockade on the coastal strip and the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners.
Egyptian and Palestinian sources said on Thursday that the Palestinian factions' weapons are the major source of disagreement in the talks.
The source -- speaking to Al-Ahram's Arabic news website -- said that Israel has called for the disarming of Hamas and other Palestinian groups in Gaza in exchange for lifting the siege on the strip.
Hamas has constantly rejected the idea of disarmament, and on Friday Abu Marzouk in a tweet described the weapons of Palestinian resistance groups as the "sole guarantee for any reached deal."
According to the same sources, Egypt excluded Israel from talks over the Rafah crossing -- located on the Egypt-Gaza border -- describing it as an Egyptian-Palestinian matter only.
Hamas has expressed its readiness to hand to pass the management of the Gaza-side of the border to the newly formed Palestinian unity government, the sources said, adding that Egypt emphasised the "immediate opening" of the crossing once this step takes place.
Egypt has kept the border closed during the weeks of violence, despite calls by pro-Palestinian activists to open the crossing. A solidarity convoy of Egyptian activists was prevented by Egyptian security officials from travelling to Rafah in July, although other forms of aid organised by the Egyptian government have been allowed through. A number of injured Palestinians have also been allowed to enter Egypt for medical treatment.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has called for EU "inspectors" to monitor Gaza's borders, according to an interview published in a German newspaper on Thursday, AFP reported. The EU’s EUBAM operation (EU Border Assistance Mission) helped administer the border from 2005 until 2007.
Al-Ahram’s sources said that Israel had agreed to allow all means of humanitarian support into Gaza "without any delay and from all crossings." Tel Aviv also agreed to release a number of Palestinian prisoners, provided that mechanisms of implementation will be discussed later, added the sources.
The Israeli delegation left Cairo on Thursday in order to meet with the Israeli government. They will return later with official responses over the issues tackled during the talks, the sources concluded.
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