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Israel and the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad agreed to a cease-fire on Saturday, in response to Egyptian negotiators, ending 5 days of violence during which 35 individuals have been killed.
Egyptian officers stated representatives from Israel and Islamic Jihad, an Islamist group primarily based in Gaza, had agreed to droop preventing. The perimeters confirmed {that a} cease-fire had been reached, however. exchanges of fireside continued for a minimum of half-hour after the deal was to enter impact at 10 p.m. native time.
In keeping with native Arabic information retailers, Israel and Islamic Jihad mutually agreed to cease firing on civilians and destroying properties. However a Western diplomat, with data of the talks, stated the cease-fire got here with out circumstances — as Israel had demanded — and was primarily based on the precept of calm being answered with calm.
The 5 days of preventing, the longest stretch of cross-border violence between Israel and the group lately, remained comparatively contained. Islamic Jihad, a small militant group backed by Iran, failed to attract in Hamas — the extra highly effective Islamic militant group that controls Gaza — or every other main faction. The Islamic Jihad fighters, alone on the battlefield, suffered crushing blows.
Some specialists attributed the stamina of Islamic Jihad — which Israel, america and lots of different Western international locations classify as a terrorist group — to the truth that, not like Hamas, the group doesn’t bear any duty for Gaza’s largely impoverished inhabitants of greater than two million individuals. As a substitute, it’s centered solely on its long-term objective of changing Israel with an Islamic state.
“It exists only for one objective: to battle and ‘liberate’ the nation,” Zakaria al-Qaq, a Palestinian knowledgeable in nationwide safety primarily based in East Jerusalem, stated of Islamic Jihad.
“They don’t have any ministerial positions or parliamentary seats to maintain and no privileges apart from to die” he stated, including that the group had gained the respect of many Palestinians, who sympathize with the Gazans dwelling below a strict land, air and sea blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt.
Israel additionally maintained that Iran, Islamic Jihad’s patron, had been setting the agenda whereas the group’s leaders dwell in exile. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israeli army, stated this previous week that the group’s leaders have been “dwelling in accommodations in Beirut and Damascus and driving Mercedes” whereas on the Iranian payroll, have been “OK with Gaza bleeding.”
Earlier rounds of preventing between Israel and Islamic Jihad — in April, in August final yr and in November 2019 — have been throughout in about 50 hours or much less.
However in a tv interview in October, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the chief of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in exile, stated the group had made a “strategic mistake” two months earlier in agreeing to a cease-fire after 50 hours, below native and regional strain. He stated they might have continued preventing and achieved “concrete outcomes on the bottom.”
This time, Israel argued that it was prepared for a cease-fire with no preconditions, nevertheless it additionally stated that it was able to proceed with its offensive. For its half, Islamic Jihad cited “nice loyal in style assist” on Saturday and stated that “the resistance has ready itself for months of confrontation.”
Two important occasions on the calendar within the coming week had the potential to attract broader Arab assist for the group’s trigger.
On Monday, Palestinians and their supporters will mark the seventy fifth anniversary of the so-called Nakba, or “disaster” during which lots of of 1000’s of Palestinian refugees fled or have been expelled from their properties within the warfare surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948. Then, later this coming week, tens of 1000’s of Israeli nationalists are anticipated to march by way of the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis in an annual parade commemorating Israel’s seize of East Jerusalem within the 1967 warfare.
After firing rockets towards Jerusalem on Friday, Dawoud Shehab, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, advised an area Arabic information outlet, “The battle is approaching the time of the flag march — that’s what spurs us on to proceed.”
The warring sides had traded fireplace on Saturday earlier than the settlement took maintain. The Israeli army stated it had struck mortar-shell and rocket-launching websites belonging to Islamic Jihad in addition to what it described as two of the group’s command facilities positioned in residential properties. And sirens constantly sounded in southern and central Israel, warning of barrages of incoming projectiles together with within the hour earlier than the cease-fire was anticipated to come back into impact.
Over the previous 5 days, Islamic Jihad fired greater than 1,200 rockets and mortar rounds towards Israel, and Israel struck greater than 370 targets affiliated with the group in Gaza, in response to knowledge launched by the army. The Israeli authorities additionally stated that the group had fired dozens of mortar shells towards areas close to the border crossings between Israel and Gaza, stopping their opening for the passage of most individuals and items.
The Palestinian Ministry of Well being has reported a minimum of 33 individuals killed in Gaza, a lot of them civilians, for the reason that marketing campaign started and greater than 100 injured. In Israel, an older girl was killed on Thursday by a rocket launched from Gaza that struck an condominium block in central Israel. Israel’s ambulance service reported eight individuals injured by shrapnel and particles, together with three it stated have been wounded by a rocket fired into southern Israel on Saturday, two of them severely. Two of the three have been Palestinian employees from Gaza. One of many employees from Gaza subsequently died within the hospital.
Israeli officers stated the choice to launch the offensive towards leaders of Islamic Jihad was made on Could 2, the day that the group fired greater than 100 rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel after the demise in Israeli custody of a Palestinian starvation striker, Khader Adnan, who was protesting his detention. Mr. Adnan was an Islamic Jihad chief from the occupied West Financial institution. That evening, Israel carried out some preliminary airstrikes in Gaza that killed one man.
Israeli officers stated the marketing campaign that started on Tuesday was geared toward weakening Islamic Jihad, an goal they achieved within the first seconds of the marketing campaign, and restoring stability to the world. The opening strikes killed three of Islamic Jihad’s high commanders and 10 civilians, together with kids, in response to Palestinian well being officers. Three extra of the group’s key commanders have been killed in subsequent strikes this previous week.
The Israeli army’s chief of employees, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, stated on Saturday that Islamic Jihad’s continued fireplace had enabled Israel “to proceed to make additional achievements.”
America has backed Israel’s proper to defend itself towards indiscriminate rocket fireplace by Islamic Jihad, whereas additionally stressing the urgency of reaching a cease-fire settlement.
Islamic Jihad at first offered a number of circumstances for a cease-fire, together with an Israeli dedication to halt assassinations; the discharge of Mr. Adnan’s physique for burial; and the cancellation of the Jerusalem flag parade — circumstances that Israel refused.
Iyad Abuheweila contributed reporting from Gaza Metropolis, and Carol Sutherland from Moshav Ben Ami, Israel.
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