New Gaza 72-hour cease-fire in effect

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday in remarks at a weekly cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv that Israel would “not negotiate under fire.”

The level of violence has decreased since the start of the start of the month-long conflict, with armed groups in Gaza shooting fewer rockets with shorter ranges into Israel since an earlier three-day cease-fire ended Friday.

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have also decreased, and its ground troops withdrew to the border with Israel on Tuesday, but at least four Palestinians including a 14-year old boy were killed in Israeli attacks overnight — raising the Palestinian toll to more than 1,900 dead and nearly 10,000 wounded since fighting began in earnest on July 8, Haaretz reported. Sixty-four Israeli soldiers have died in the conflict, and three Israeli civilians have been killed by Palestinian rocket fire.

“At no stage did we declare [Israel’s military offensive] was over,” Haaretz quoted Netanyahu as saying at the cabinet meeting. “The operation will continue until its objective — the restoration of quiet over a protracted period — is achieved.”

Abu Zuhri countered Sunday that Netanyahu would be “fully responsible for the failure of the Cairo negotiations and for all the consequences that may result.”

Bashir Abed, a Palestinian man who had taken refuge with his infant son and more than 2,500 other people inside a U.N.-run school in Gaza, said he hoped negotiators back up his people’s rights.

“I say to the delegation [in Cairo], if you do not secure the demands of the people, you have to leave. Israel does not want peace, Israel wants to give us only 1 percent of our rights. Israel is stalling,” he said.

Meanwhile Sunday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed 12-year-old Palestinian Khalil al-Anati in a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Hebron, Maan News reported. 

Israeli troops had reportedly been escorting Israeli engineers into Palestinian neighborhoods near the illegal Israeli settlement of Haggay, which is why the soldiers were in the Palestinian camp.

“We don’t know what they [the Israelis] were doing,” a weeping Yussef al-Anati told Maan News, his shirt soaked in blood from carrying his nephew to the hospital.

As the Israeli soldiers entered the refugee camp, residents began throwing stones, though a witness said al-Anati had not been participating.

“Khalil was playing in front of the house, then we heard gunfire. The kid was screaming and fell down,” al-Anati said. “He was shot in the back and the bullet exited through his stomach.”

Israeli forces have killed at least 17 Palestinians over the past month in the West Bank, Maan reported.

With wire services