ISRAEL-MIDEAST GAZA/BORDER Israeli troops and armoured vehicles remain close to Gaza's border

Record ID: 398665

  • Title: ISRAEL-MIDEAST GAZA/BORDER Israeli troops and armoured vehicles remain close to Gaza's border
  • Date: 19th August 2014
  • Summary: ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER, ISRAEL SIDE (AUGUST 19, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS WALKING NEAR ARMOURED VEHICLE ISRAELI HUMVEE WITH MOUNTED GUN DRIVING ISRAELI ARMOURED VEHICLE ISRAELI HUMVEE DRIVING DOWN ROAD QUICKLY GROUP OF ISRAELI TANKS PARKED ISRAELI FLAG FLYING ATOP TANK PARKED WITH GROUP ISRAELI ARMOURED VEHICLES PARKED IN DESERT ISRAELI ARMOURED VEHICLES PARK
  • Embargoed: 3rd September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADG95UMINDRPET0TYZJZ5SJV9R
  • Story Text: Israel said Palestinian militants fired rockets from Gaza on Tuesday (August 19) in violation of a truce, attacks that swiftly drew air strikes and the recall of Israeli negotiators from talks in Cairo on a long-term ceasefire.
    Three rockets struck southern Israel, near the city of Beersheba, the military said, nearly eight hours before a ceasefire - extended by a day on Monday - was due to expire. Two other rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system over the southern town of Netivot.
    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, which the military said caused no casualties or damage. Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, the dominant movement in the Gaza Strip, said it had no knowledge of any rockets being fired.
    Witnesses said Israeli aircraft carried out at least 25 strikes, and hospital officials reported that five Palestinians, two of them children, were wounded. The attacks spurred a new exodus of dozens of Palestinian families who had fled previous fighting and returned home only days ago.
    On Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's order, Israeli delegates to the indirect talks with the Palestinians, on ending the Gaza war and charting the territory's future, flew home.
    One local Israeli official said that rocket fire should not affect negotiations.
    "I think the government of Israel should react, and should behave according to our fundamental interests. If the negotiation in Cairo is moving towards a positive way, we should continue. We shouldn't give - we shouldn't allow any one of the terrorists, of the hooligans in Gaza to tell us what we should do," Alon Shuster, head of Shaar Hanegev Regional Council said.
    Israel has said repeatedly that it would not negotiate under fire, and Egyptian mediators have been struggling to end the five-week-old Gaza conflict and seal a deal that would open the way for reconstruction aid to flow to the territory of 1.8 million, where thousands of homes have been destroyed.
    The Palestinians want Egypt and Israel to lift their blockades of the economically-crippled Gaza Strip that predated the Israeli offensive launched on July 8 after a surge in cross-border rocket fire by Hamas.
    The Palestinian Health Ministry put the Gaza death toll at 2,016 and said most were civilians in the small, densely populated coastal territory. Israel has said it killed hundreds of Gaza gunmen in the fighting. Sixty-four Israeli soldiers and three civilians in Israel have been killed.
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