GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — High school students in Gaza have been in the streets this morning, heading off to pick up their graduation certificates.
It’s one sign of the 72-hour cease-fire that has again taken hold in Gaza. It’s aimed at allowing humanitarian aid into the territory, and the reopening of indirect talks in Egypt between Israel and Hamas on a more lasting and comprehensive truce. A four-member Israeli delegation arrived this morning in Cairo.
The lull in the violence is allowing Palestinians to leave their homes and shelters, and there have been long lines at ATMs.
Although the cease-fire is holding, the Israeli military says it killed a suspected Palestinian militant early today in a West Bank village. The military says he was killed after he opened fire on an Israeli force that had come to arrest him in connection with shootings targeting Israeli soldiers two weeks ago.
The month-long war pitting the Israeli military against rocket-firing Hamas militants has killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, according to Palestinian and U.N. officials, who say the majority were civilians. In Israel, officials say 67 people have been killed, all but three of them soldiers.
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141-a-10-(Nick Witney, senior policy fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations, in AP interview)-“of petering out”-Nick Witney of the European Council on Foreign Relations says there’s little hope this cease-fire will mark the end of the current cycle of violence. (11 Aug 2014)
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138-a-16-(Mark Regev (REH’-gehv), spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, in AP interview)-“rejected or violated”-Mark Regev, the Israeli prime minister’s spokesman, says Israel’s military is ready to respond if Hamas violates the cease-fire. (11 Aug 2014)
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APPHOTO HM121: A Palestinian searches the rubble of his home for salvageable items, in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, Monday, Aug. 11, 2014. An Egyptian-brokered cease-fire halting the Gaza war held into Monday morning, allowing Palestinians to leave homes and shelters as negotiators agreed to resume talks in Cairo. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) (11 Aug 2014)
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