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Photo: Tsafrir Abayov

Gaza groups reaffirm ceasefire

Islamic Jihad says will abide by truce agreed upon by Popular Resistance Committees, Hamas vis-à-vis Israel; statement follows conflicting vow to avenge killing of two operatives in IAF strike

The Islamic Jihad announced on Thursday that it will stand by the armistice agreed upon by Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and other Gaza groups vis-à-vis Israel.

 

Jihad spokesman Nasiz Azzam said that the lull – originally brokered on Sunday after several days of incessant rocket fire at Israel – will take effect starting at 1 am on Friday. 

 

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The statement was contrary to one made just mere hours earlier by the al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's military wing, which vowed to avenge the killing of two Jihad operatives in an IAF strike in Gaza.

 

Military aircrafts targeted a terror cell in the southwestern Gaza neighborhood of Sudaniya as it was gearing to fire rockets at Israel. Medical sources in the Strip reported that two Jihad operatives were killed.

 

"A million people are now within range of our rockets, and this figure might turn into two or three million or even more, if Israel does not stop its aggression," the al-Quds Brigades' statement said.

  

Jihad Spokesman Abu-Ahmad further criticized Hamas' stance in regard to Israel, saying that, "Those who call for a lull while Israeli aggression, including aerial strikes and bombardments of civil and military targets continues – are living on a different planet.

 

"If someone is afraid of losing their seat – they can just stand aside and mind their own business," he added.

 


Rocket damage on Route 35 (Photo: Tsafrir Abayov) 

 

The fragile armistice seemed to dissipate completely on Thursday, as Israel's southern communities came under Gaza terrorists' fire.

 

One of the 10 rockets fired at the western Negev over Thursday evening damaged Erez crossing. No injuries were reported.

 

"There have been many efforts by Egyptian leaders to restore the ceasefire," a Jihad spokesman said. A spokesman for the Hamas government in Gaza confirmed Egypt and the United Nations' involvement in brokering the reaffirmed truce.

 

"The government has called on the Palestinian factions not to give an opportunity to the (Israeli) occupation government to escalate its aggression further," Taher Nunu, a Hamas-government spokesman said.

 

Another Hamas official said all key factions agreed to the truce and that the Gaza government and Egypt were trying to get tiny factions on board, too.

 

  • AFP and AP contributed to this report

 

 

 

 

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 08.26.11, 01:44
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