Israelis arrive in Cairo as Gaza truce holds

Shortly after a new 72-hour cease-fire took effect, Israeli and Palestinian factions were scheduled to resume indirect negotiations in Cairo for another round of talks to bring an end to more than a month of violence.

An Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo on Monday just hours after the truce went into effect, and the Palestinian delegation was already locked in talks with Egyptian intelligence mediators, who will relay the Palestinians’ demands to the Israelis, a Palestinian official said.

Israeli demands include the demilitarization of Gaza and disarmament of Hamas. The Palestinians have laid out a number of conditions, starting with the lifting of Israel’s seven-year blockade of Gaza. They also want the release of about 125 key political prisoners held by the Israelis. 

Almost 12 hours into the truce, the skies over Gaza remained calm, with no reports of violations by either side. Signs of life returned to the streets of the war-torn coastal enclave, which is home to 1.8 million Palestinians.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Cairo agreed to the 72-hour humanitarian pause in a “simultaneous consensus,” according to Egyptian negotiators. Egypt called on both sides to use the lull to “reach a comprehensive and permanent cease-fire.”

This is the second round of indirect talks to take place in Cairo. The first failed to yield any results after 72-hour cease-fire ended on Friday morning, with the violence resuming between Israel and Hamas soon afterward.

Israel had said earlier Sunday that it was prepared for an extended offensive on Gaza and would not return to Cairo for truce negotiations as long as rocket fire from the territory continued. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday at a weekly Cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv that Israel would “not negotiate under fire.”

Hamas previously said it would agree to a long-term truce only if certain conditions were met, such as lifting the blockade. 

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

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have also decreased, and its ground troops withdrew to the border 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 rockets or mortars.

“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.”

Hamas spokesman Sami 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 in 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.

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

Israeli troops were reportedly escorting Israeli engineers into Palestinian neighborhoods near the illegal Israeli settlement of Haggay.

“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 a hospital.

As the Israeli soldiers entered the refugee camp, residents began throwing stones, though a witness said Khalil al-Anati did not participate.

“Khalil was playing in front of the house, then we heard gunfire. The kid was screaming and fell down,” Yussef 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