Gaza City: After 25 days of bloodshed in which more than 1442 Palestinians and 64 Israelis have died, a temporary, 72-hour ceasefire came into force on Friday morning following a night of intensive bombardment up and down the Gaza Strip.
The fighting continued until the very last moment, with navy gunboats shelling along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast and tanks firing heavy artillery and shells from the east, while militants from Gaza fired rockets into central and southern Israel, triggering sirens in Ashkelon, Ashdod and the Eshkol region.
Both Israel and Hamas confirmed they had agreed to the truce and for the first time since Israel’s operations in Gaza began on July 8, it appeared there may be a real pause in the hostilities.
In a joint statement released overnight on Thursday, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State John Kerry said the ceasefire was “critical to giving innocent civilians a much-needed reprieve from violence”.
It would allow Palestinians to bury the dead, care for the injured and restock food supplies as well as carry out overdue repairs on essential water and energy infrastructure, they said.
“We urge all parties to act with restraint until this humanitarian cease-fire begins, and to fully abide by their commitments during the cease-fire.”
As soon as it was clear the temporary lull was holding, delegations from Israel and Palestine were to head to Cairo for an intensive round of negotiations over a longer-lasting ceasefire, the statement from Mr Ban and Mr Kerry said.
It is understood the US is also sending a small delegation, including deputy secretary of state William Burns, but Mr Kerry is not expected to participate.
Israeli ground troops would remain in Gaza during the ceasefire, Mr Kerry said in a separate statement, to “continue its defensive operations for those tunnels that are behind its lines”.
Several temporary ceasefires have collapsed in the last week, with both Israel and Hamas blaming each other for their failure. This is the first time that both parties have agreed both a lull in fighting and for negotiations to be conducted during that time.
It is unclear what the turning point was, although the White House’s open condemnation of Israel’s artillery strike on a United Nations girls' school in which at least 15 people, including sleeping children, were killed appeared to be a line in the sand for the international community.
Describing the shelling of the school sheltering 3300 displaced Palestinians as "totally unacceptable and totally indefensible,” the White House said there was little doubt it was Israeli artillery that hit the school on Wednesday.
In its initial statements after the shelling, the White House condemned the attack but did not mention Israel.
It was one of the worst mass-casualty attacks of the three-week war and the sixth time a UN school in Gaza had been hit.
Following the attack in which another UN worker was also killed, Pierre Krahenbuhl, the UN Relief and Works Agency commissioner-general, said: “The world stands disgraced, this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame.”
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the Palestinian death toll since fighting began is 1442 and the number of wounded has risen to 8295, while human rights groups say 80 per cent of the dead and injured are civilians.
Gaza’s housing ministry’s initial estimates on the damage caused by IDF operations is around $US4 billion and that more than 5328 buildings had been totally destroyed, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.
Since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, 61 IDF soldiers have been killed, including five in the 24 hours before the ceasefire. Three civilians, including a Thai agricultural worker, were also killed and many communities shocked by the discovery of Hamas tunnels running into their land.
