Israeli sources have denied reports in Palestinian media this morning of a five-hour humanitarian truce in the fighting in the Gaza Strip to commence at 10:00. IDF spokesperson Brigadier-General Motti Almoz told Walla! News, "We know of no cease-fire, we haven't heard anything about it, and we continue to operate determinedly in Gaza." As the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, mainly concentrated in the Sejaiya neighborhood of Gaza, US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have flown to the Middle East in an attempt to achieve a general cease-fire.
The IDF spokesperson published a statement this morning on Hamas's claim to have captured an Israeli soldier on Sunday night. The incident in question is the one in which Hamas fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli personnel carrier, killing seven soldiers. After the incident, Hamas reported that it was holding a captive and even presented identifying details, but the IDF spokesperson said that the identification procedure for the seventh soldier killed had not yet been completed. In other words, an Israeli soldier is missing presumed dead, but the likelihood that Hamas holds a live soldier is low.
Just after 10:00 this morning sirens were sounded in the Gush Dan area and explosions were heard. Pieces of a rocket hit a house in Yehud and two people were lightly injured.
Also this morning, in the al-Nasr neighborhood of Gaza, the IDF bombarded the home of Ziad al-Zaza, deputy to the Hamas prime minister in the Gaza Strip Ismail Haniyeh before the current government resigned under the agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
Rocket fire from the Gaza Strip at Israel resumed this morning, with sirens being sounded in Ashdod and Ashkelon.
Yesterday afternoon, two IDF soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire with Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. This is in addition to four IDF soldiers killed yesterday when Hamas terrorists infiltrated into Israel near Kibbutz Nir-Am. Ten of the terrorists were killed. The number of IDF personnel killed since the current ground operation in the Gaza Strip began last Thursday night now totals 27. The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported early this morning that the number of Palestinians killed in the fighting had reached 538, and that 3,640 people were injured.
The IDF spokesperson said that seven IDF troops were wounded overnight, four of them severely.
Palestinian sources report progress towards a cease-fire agreement in talks in Egypt. Hamas leader Khaled Mashal and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) are said to have agreed on the Palestinian side's conditions for a cease-fire. According to the reports, an agreement with Israel will begin with an extended humanitarian cease-fire under the aegis of Ban Ki-moon, who is due in Israel today, and will include an easing of the blockade on the Gaza Strip, although it will not be stipulated when the crossings into Gaza will be opened.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 22, 2014
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