Cairo – Officials from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the main groups fighting in Gaza, said Tuesday they have reached a deal with Israel to end a seven-week war that has killed more than 2,000 Palestinians.
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There was no immediate Israeli comment.
Ziad Nakhala, a senior official in Islamic Jihad, said the deal calls for an “open-ended” cease-fire, and an Israeli agreement to ease its blockade of Gaza to allow relief supplies and construction materials into the war-battered territory.
Talks on more complex issues, such as Hamas’ demand to build an airport and a seaport for Gaza, would begin in a month, he said.
Egypt planned an announcement later Tuesday, he said.
The Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity pending the announcement, confirmed the terms.
If the details of the cease-fire are confirmed, it would effectively mean Hamas and Islamic Jihad settled for terms that are similar to those that ended more than a week of fighting with Israel in 2012.
Under those terms, Israel promised to ease restrictions gradually, while Hamas pledged to halt rocket fire from Gaza at Israel. The truce held for long stretches, but Gaza’s border blockade also remained largely intact.
Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade in 2007, after Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007. Under the restrictions, virtually all of Gaza’s 1.8 million people cannot trade or travel. Only a few thousand are able to leave the coastal territory every month.
During the war, Hamas had said it would only cease fire if the blockade is lifted.
However, Israeli pressure on the group has been escalating. Hamas is believed to be left with just one-third of its initial rocket arsenal of 10,000, while Israel says it has destroyed most of Hamas’ network of military attack tunnels.
Israeli strikes have destroyed or severely damaged more than 17,000 Gaza homes, according to U.N. estimates, leaving about 100,000 people homeless. The number of dead has also been rising steadily, reaching at least 2,138 by Tuesday, with more than 11,000 Gazans wounded since July 8.
On the Israeli side, 68 people have been killed, all but four of them soldiers. Thousands of Israelis living near Gaza have fled their homes, including in recent days when Gaza militants stepped up mortar fire on southern Israel.
In Gaza, Israel also escalated its strikes, toppling five high-rise buildings housing offices, apartments and shops since this weekend.
On Tuesday, Israel bombed two Gaza City high-rises.
The strikes leveled the 15-story Basha Tower with apartments and offices and severely damaged the Italian Complex, built in the 1990s by an Italian businessman, with dozens of shops and offices.
Both buildings were evacuated after receiving warnings of impending strikes. Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said 25 people were wounded in the attack on the Italian Complex.
One resident of the Italian Complex, 38-year-old engineer Nael Mousa, said that he, his four children and 70-year-old mother had managed to flee the building late Monday night after a guard had alerted them of an impending strike, and that he was in his car some 300 meters (yards) away when it was bombed by an Israeli F-16 fighter jet.
Within two hours, he said, it had been completely levelled by at least five additional bombs.
“I have become homeless, my children’s fear will never be soothed and something new has now been added to our feelings toward Israel and all the world, which has been looking on without doing anything,” he said.
In the past, the military has hit targets in high-rises in pinpoint strikes, but left the buildings standing.
The objects of the latest strikes contain apartments inhabited almost exclusively by middle-class Gazans, who up until now have been largely spared the considerable dislocation that has affected tens of thousands of other residents in densely populated neighborhoods of the coastal strip.
That has raised the possibility that the Israeli military is trying to use better-off Gazans, like professionals and Palestinian Authority employees, to put pressure on Hamas to end the fighting on Israel’s terms.
The Israeli military said it targeted sites linked to militants Tuesday, but made no specific reference to the two buildings. Israel alleges Hamas often operates from civilian locations. The military has not said why it has begun collapsing large buildings, rather than carrying out pinpointed strikes against suspected militant targets located there.
In an email message to The Associated Press, military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the strikes were “a direct result to Hamas’ decision to situate their terrorist infrastructure within the civilian sphere including schools, hospitals and high-rise buildings.”
He said Israel will not “enable Hamas to continue to kill Israelis, target our towns and cities and expect to operate without consequence to their facilities, militant operatives and the leadership of their heinous attacks against Israel.”
rockets are still raining into Israel!
Bad mistake to negotiate with terrorists. Israel has the upper hand the longer this goes on…finish the job!!!
“That has raised the possibility that the Israeli military is trying to use better-off Gazans, like professionals and Palestinian Authority employees, to put pressure on Hamas to end the fighting on Israel’s terms.”
Whether this is true or not, Hamas is sure desperate the past two day to reach any deal the heat is on thier leaders, and that is THE ONLY language the comprehend.
The current agreement was long ago offered by Israel but was strongly rejected by Hamas, as they would have nothing to show for after all the losses.
I sense that Hamas knows that the tide of world opinion is starting to turn on them, as they are starting to get lumped in with ISIS. Time to shut down the attacks until the heat is off.
I am no fan of Carter – but you know, you are not at war with Egypt. You are at was with Hamas – so you have to either completely knock them out or make a truce with Hamas. Every time there is an “agreement” with Egypt, Hamas keeps sending rockets.