{"id":34871,"date":"2014-07-27T14:04:03","date_gmt":"2014-07-27T14:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=34871"},"modified":"2014-07-27T12:26:50","modified_gmt":"2014-07-27T12:26:50","slug":"hamas-announces-new-24-hour-gaza-ceasefire-with-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=34871","title":{"rendered":"Hamas announces new 24-hour Gaza ceasefire with Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Palestinian militant group Hamas has announced a 24-hour ceasefire after Israel ended an earlier truce amid continuing rocket fire from Gaza.<\/p>\n

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said the ceasefire would start from 14:00 local time (11:00 GMT).<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Israel military said the announcement was “an opportunity perhaps”.<\/p>\n

Some 1,060 Palestinians and 46 Israelis have died in recent hostilities.<\/p>\n

Most of those killed in Gaza are civilians, Palestinian health officials say, while 43 soldiers and three civilians have died on the Israeli side.<\/p>\n

‘Incessant rocket fire’<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Saturday, Israel accepted a UN request for a 24-hour ceasefire until the end of Sunday, although it said ground forces would continue to destroy tunnels used by Hamas during the pause.<\/p>\n

The Israeli ceasefire followed a 12-hour truce, observed by both sides on Saturday, which enabled Gaza residents to gather supplies and retrieve bodies buried under the rubble.<\/p>\n

However, the Israeli military announced on Sunday morning it had decided to resume its air, ground and naval raids on Gaza in response to “incessant rocket fire” from Hamas.<\/p>\n

The militant group had initially rejected the Israeli offer, saying it would only halt rocket attacks once Israeli troops left Gaza and the displaced were allowed to return home.<\/p>\n

But shortly after Israeli raids resumed, Hamas said it had decided to agree to a humanitarian truce.<\/p>\n

“As a preparation for the end of Ramadan and in response to the UN mediation and also regarding our people’s living circumstances, we have agreed with all Palestinian factions to give a 24-hour humanitarian ceasefire starting from 14:00 on Sunday,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"IsraeliIsrael says its ground offensive in Gaza is aimed at destroying tunnels dug by militants to infiltrate Israel<\/div>\n
\"PalestinianPalestinian militants, seen here marching in the West Bank, continued to fire rockets despite the truce<\/div>\n

Correspondents in Gaza said loud explosions could be heard in several districts as Israeli forces resumed their air strikes. Palestinian eyewitnesses reported heavy shelling to the east of Gaza City.<\/p>\n

Eight Palestinians have died in Sunday’s attacks, according to Gazan health officials.<\/p>\n

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) earlier said at least 20 rockets had been launched toward Israel since Saturday night, despite the truce.<\/p>\n

It added that a soldier was killed by mortar shell fired from Gaza early on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

Israel launched its military offensive on 8 July with the declared objective of stopping Hamas firing rockets from Gaza into Israel.<\/p>\n

On 18 July, it extended operations with a ground offensive, saying it was necessary to destroy tunnels dug by militants to infiltrate Israel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palestinian militant group Hamas has announced a 24-hour ceasefire after Israel ended an earlier truce amid continuing rocket fire from Gaza. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said the ceasefire would start from 14:00 local time (11:00 GMT). A spokesman for the Israel military said the announcement was “an opportunity perhaps”. Some 1,060 Palestinians and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-34871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}