JERUSALEM (EJP)—A 17 year old boy has been seriously injured during the last volley of rockets fired on the southern city of Ashkelon. A 60 year-old man who suffered light injuries.
The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.
The wounded Ashkelon teenager is in critical condition, and will likely be airlifted to central Israel for treatment, according to the mayor of Ashkelon, Itamar Shimoni.
The 16-year-old was playing outside when the sirens went off, and did not seek shelter. He was injured by shrapnel from the rocket.
Shimoni said two other rockets fell in the city, causing damage. He addressed rumors of a cease-fire. “I trust the government and the Defense Minister, who said that we have time [before needing to declare a cease-fire],” he said. “You must hit them hard, break their necks, we are strong and we are determined – I see no reason to discuss a cease-fire.”
Hamas rejected Egyptian proposal to hold fire
Israel was favorable toward Cairo’s bid last week for a 40-hour truce, to be followed by negotiations for long-term agreement
As part of Egypt’s efforts to halt the fighting between Hamas and Israel, Cairo proposed to the Palestinian organization’s leadership and to the Israeli government that they mutually stop the fire for 40 hours, after which a broader ceasefire agreement would be discussed — but Hamas rejected the offer, The Times of Israel learned from Israeli and Hamas sources.
The offer was presented to the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouk, by Egyptian intelligence officers last week. Abu Marzouk rejected it after a brief consultation with the terror group’s military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam brigades, the sources said.
Israeli officials said they were open to the possibility of stopping the fighting for an agreed-upon period before negotiating the terms of a longer-term truce.
Diplomatic officials said Saturday night that Israel was not ruling out a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip if it results in a significant change in the situation inside Gaza and a restoration of quiet to the South.
The officials’ comments came as the UN Security Council issued a statement calling for a cease-fire, and as the Foreign Ministers of the US, France, Germany and Britain were set to discuss the situation at a meeting in Vienna on Sunday, on the sidelines of their talks with Iran.
Israeli officials were not speaking of the conditions they would demand for a cease-fire, but among the ideas that have been discussed are the dismantling of the rocket capabilities inside Gaza, similar to the manner in which the chemical weapons were dismantled in Syria, developing a mechanism to enforce the cease-fire and a restoration of Palestinian Authority – not Hamas – to control over the area.
Diplomatic officials said Israel was in contact with third parties about the possibilities but would not provide concrete details. Turkey and Qatar have reportedly also put cease-fire proposals on the table, but these have been rejected by Israel.
“The goals of Operation Protective Edge remain restoring quiet to Israel for a long period of time while delivering a significant blow to Hamas and the terrorist organizations in Gaza… whether through military means or diplomatic ones,” one official said.
“Israel will weigh any proposal that will bring about an achievement of those goals,” the official continued. “If Hamas will continue to fire on Israeli citizens, the IDF will increase the power of its blows against Hamas and terrorist organizations in Gaza.”
The officials said Israel was not responding to any particular cease-fire that has been proposed.
On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the situation in Gaza was a stark reminder of the need for Israel to hold on to territory for security purposes.
In a brief press conference, he said the terror kingdom that Hamas had set up in Gaza – where there are not only thousands of rockets, but also well over a thousand tunnels – will not be allowed to be replicated in the West Bank.
“We need to understand one fact: We are living in a Middle East that is being taken over by radical Islam, leading to the collapse of a number of counties and [these Islamists]knocking on our doors both in the North and the South. I say we cannot allow a situation where we get Gaza in Judea and Samaria,” the prime minister stated.
“Today I think that Israel’s citizens understand why I say all the time that there cannot be a situation in any agreement that we will give up security control from the Jordan River westward,” he continued. “I don’t want to create another 20 Gazas in Judea and Samaria.”
Netanyahu also addressed the importance of territory, where if Israel left the West Bank completely there would be the possibility of thousands of tunnels burrowing into the country.
“There are 1,200 tunnels in the 14 kilometers between Egypt and Gaza,” he revealed, adding that Egypt had sealed most of them.
The tunnels, he said, illustrated that territory “has tremendous importance.”
Netanyahu, who took questions from reporters for the first time since Operation Protective Edge began, pledged it would continue until quiet is restored.