Thursday, August 25, 2011

Gaza Terror Groups Announce New Ceasefire


by Elad Benari

Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the other terror groups in the Gaza Strip declared another ceasefire with Israel late Thursday night, Voice of Israel Radio reported.

According to the report, rocket attacks aimed at southern Israel’s communities will stop at 1:00 p.m. Israel time on Friday.

The announcement came after at least 17 rockets and mortar shells were fired from Gaza on Thursday evening. The rockets and mortars exploded in open fields in Eshkol, the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, and south of Ashkelon. The “Color Red” warning siren was sounded in the areas under attack.

Shortly after 7:00 p.m. another rocket was fired that struck near the Erez crossing. The IAF reported that warplanes struck a separate terror cell preparing a launch just before the Erez attack and scored a “precise hit.”

After 10:00 p.m., terrorists in northern Gaza fired yet another rocket at the western Negev city of Sderot. The rocket hit an agricultural facility east of the city.

Thankfully, there were no physical injuries in any of Thursday’s attacks, which came after at least 20 rockets were fired into Israel Wednesday night.

According to Voice of Israel Radio, the announcement of the latest ceasefire was surprising since only several hours before the announcement, the Islamic Jihad terror group criticized Hamas for suggesting that it stop firing rockets.

A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad had been quoted as saying that “whoever calls for a lull while Israeli aggression, including aerial strikes and bombardments of civil and military targets continues – must be living on a different planet.”

The latest ceasefire, however, may not mean much, as the terror groups have declared ceasefires in the past and almost immediately violated them. In fact, the latest round of violence came after Hamas declared a ceasefire on Sunday evening.

The Islamic Jihad used the fact that Israel killed one of its terrorists, who had been planning a terror attack in Gaza, as an excuse to launch a barrage of rockets at southern Israel.

Elad Benari

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/147225#.TlcUqV3Smdc

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

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