- Title: ISRAEL: Israeli troops, tanks remain positioned on border amid ceasefire
- Date: 15th August 2014
- Summary: ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER, ISRAEL SIDE (AUGUST 15, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TANKS NEAR BORDER WITH GAZA SUN RISING IN SKY SEEN THROUGH CLOUD BIRD IN TREE TANKS PARKED IN DESERT AREA, ONE WITH ISRAELI FLAG ON TOP VARIOUS OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS ON TOP OF TANK PREPARING EQUIPMENT TANK DRIVING AND TURNING ROWS OF ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIERS HUMVEE DRIVING IN DISTANCE
- Embargoed: 30th August 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA7EKF943DVNZDRRU253GMAW11Q
- Story Text: A five-day truce between Israel and Hamas appeared to be holding on Friday morning (August 15) despite a shaky start, after both sides agreed to give Egyptian-brokered peace negotiations in Cairo more time to try to end the Gaza war.
The Israeli military said Gaza militants had breached the truce by firing eight rockets at Israel shortly after midnight. In response, Israeli fighter planes targeted "rocket launchers and terror sites" across the enclave. No casualties were reported and hostilities died down by dawn.
The second extension of the ceasefire, this time for five days rather than three, has raised hopes that a longer-term resolution to the conflict can be found, although the way ahead remains fraught with difficulty.
After more than a month of intense conflict, which killed 1,945 Palestinians, many of them civilians, as well as 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians in Israel, there is little appetite on either side for a resumption of bloodshed.
Hamas and its allies want an end to the Israeli and Egyptian blockade on Gaza. But Israel and Egypt harbour deep security concerns about Hamas, the dominant Islamist group in the small, Mediterranean coastal enclave, complicating any deal on easing border restrictions.
Israel launched its military campaign on July 8 and declared its aim was to quell cross-border rocket fire from Gaza and destroy tunnels used by militants.
Most of the nearly 2,000 Palestinian dead have been civilians, hospital officials in the densely populated enclave say.
The heavy civilian losses and the destruction of thousands of homes in Gaza - where the United Nations said 425,000 of a population of 1.8 million had been displaced by the war - have stoked international alarm.
Israel pulled ground forces out of Gaza last week, saying the army had completed its main mission of destroying more than 30 tunnels dug by militants for cross-border ambushes. It now wants guarantees that Hamas will not use any reconstruction supplies sent into the enclave to rebuild the tunnels. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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