14 aug 2014
Two Palestinians died on Thursday evening as a result of injuries they sustained during the Israeli assault, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra named two of the dead as Jihad Ali Abu Zeid, 61, and Mahdheyah al-Mebayyed, 91, both of whom died as a result of injuries sustained during the Israeli offensive on the Shujaiyya neighborhood of Gaza City, which left more than 100 dead in less then 48 hours.
The third deceased Palestinian man was identified as Ibrahim Ismail Abu Odeh, 64, from Beit Hanoun.
The Palestinian death toll during the five-week Israeli assault now stands at 1,963, with over 10,000 others injured.
Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra named two of the dead as Jihad Ali Abu Zeid, 61, and Mahdheyah al-Mebayyed, 91, both of whom died as a result of injuries sustained during the Israeli offensive on the Shujaiyya neighborhood of Gaza City, which left more than 100 dead in less then 48 hours.
The third deceased Palestinian man was identified as Ibrahim Ismail Abu Odeh, 64, from Beit Hanoun.
The Palestinian death toll during the five-week Israeli assault now stands at 1,963, with over 10,000 others injured.
UNRWA vehicles generally tend to carry aid or supplies, but this time the car belonging to the UN's Palestine refugee agency was crowded with women and new-born babies.
The women and their children were being taken to attend a ceremony where they would be given a hygiene kit of milk and diapers to take care of the newborns.
Among the attendees were just some of the 344 Palestinian babies who have begun their lives as internally displaced persons in UNRWA schools across Gaza, according to the agency.
A Ma'an reporter at the ceremony said that many of the attendees came dressed in their Muslim prayer dress, unable to find other clothes to wear, and some of the mothers had not been able to find any baby clothes for their newborn children amid the devastation across Gaza.
A mother from the Abu Adwan family told Ma'an that her house was bombed only hours before she gave birth to her baby daughter Ghadir.
"We ran to the (UNRWA) school just I was about to give birth," she recounted.
"I was hysterical and frightened. I went into labor and they took me to a hospital to give birth there," she added.
"But the tragedy began when we went back to the school."
"My joy was incomplete," she said, noting the terrible conditions in the shelters for displaced persons. "I could not find a place to shower; I would wet a towel and use it instead."
"The same for Ghadir. Neglect and lack of hygiene are clear on her neck."
At the height of the Israeli assault at the beginning of the August, around 485,000 Gazans were displaced from their homes, or around one-third of the total population of besieged coastal enclave. More than half of these were in UN schools that were re-purposed as shelters.
UNRWA said on Wednesday that 370,000 people were still displaced, and the homes of at least 100,000 people were unlivable, having been destroyed or severely damaged.
The mother from the Abu Adwan family said that the families are still crowded in one classroom in the school, a situation that was very uncomfortable for her as a mother who had just given birth. She said that she could not sleep and was nervous all the time.
She added that the classroom was not clean, and that the flies and smell was "unbearable."
"I did not have the nutrition I needed after giving birth," she added.
The women and their children were being taken to attend a ceremony where they would be given a hygiene kit of milk and diapers to take care of the newborns.
Among the attendees were just some of the 344 Palestinian babies who have begun their lives as internally displaced persons in UNRWA schools across Gaza, according to the agency.
A Ma'an reporter at the ceremony said that many of the attendees came dressed in their Muslim prayer dress, unable to find other clothes to wear, and some of the mothers had not been able to find any baby clothes for their newborn children amid the devastation across Gaza.
A mother from the Abu Adwan family told Ma'an that her house was bombed only hours before she gave birth to her baby daughter Ghadir.
"We ran to the (UNRWA) school just I was about to give birth," she recounted.
"I was hysterical and frightened. I went into labor and they took me to a hospital to give birth there," she added.
"But the tragedy began when we went back to the school."
"My joy was incomplete," she said, noting the terrible conditions in the shelters for displaced persons. "I could not find a place to shower; I would wet a towel and use it instead."
"The same for Ghadir. Neglect and lack of hygiene are clear on her neck."
At the height of the Israeli assault at the beginning of the August, around 485,000 Gazans were displaced from their homes, or around one-third of the total population of besieged coastal enclave. More than half of these were in UN schools that were re-purposed as shelters.
UNRWA said on Wednesday that 370,000 people were still displaced, and the homes of at least 100,000 people were unlivable, having been destroyed or severely damaged.
The mother from the Abu Adwan family said that the families are still crowded in one classroom in the school, a situation that was very uncomfortable for her as a mother who had just given birth. She said that she could not sleep and was nervous all the time.
She added that the classroom was not clean, and that the flies and smell was "unbearable."
"I did not have the nutrition I needed after giving birth," she added.
By Ramzy Baroud
Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
His latest book is "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story."
My old family house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza was recently rebuilt by its new owner, into a beautiful three-story building with large windows adorned by red frames.
In Israel's most recent and deadliest war on Gaza, the house sustained significant damage. A large hole caused by Israeli missiles can be seen from afar, in a part of the house where our kitchen once stood.
It seems that the original target was not my house, however, but that of our kindly neighbor, who had spent his entire working-life toiling between manual jobs in Israel, and later in life as a janitor for UN-operated schools in Gaza. The man's whole life savings were invested in his house where several families lived. After "warning" rockets blew up part of his house, several missiles pulverized the rest.
My entire neighborhood was also destroyed. I saw photos of the wreckage-filled neighborhood by accident on Facebook. The clearance where we played football as little kids was filled with holes left by missiles and shrapnel. The shop where I used my allowance to buy candy, was blown up.
Even the graveyard where our dead were meant to "rest in peace" was anything but peaceful. Signs of war and destruction were everywhere.
My last visit there was about two years ago. I caught up with my neighbors on the latest politics and the news of who was dead and who was still alive underneath the shady wall of my old house. One complained about his latest ailments, telling me that his son Mahmoud had been killed as he had been a freedom fighter with a Palestinian resistance movement.
I couldn't fathom the idea that Mahmoud, the child I remembered as running around half-naked with a runny nose, had become a fierce fighter with an automatic rifle ready to take on the Israeli army. But that he was, and he was killed on duty.
Time changes everything. Time has changed Gaza. But the strip was never a passive place of people subsisting on hand-outs or a pervasive sense of victimhood. Being a freedom fighter preceded any rational thinking about life and the many choices it had to offer growing up in a refugee camp, and all the little kids of my generation wanted to join the Fedayeen.
But options for Gazans are becoming much more limited than ever before, even for my generation.
Since Israel besieged Gaza with Egypt's help and coordination, life for Gazans has become largely about mere survival. The Strip has been turned into a massive ground for an Israeli experiment concerned with population control. Gazans were not allowed to venture out, fish, or farm, and those who got even close to some arbitrary "buffer zone," determined by the Israeli army within Gaza's own borders, were shot and often killed.
With time the population of the Strip knew that they were alone. The short stint that brought Mohammed Morsi to power in Egypt offered Gaza some hope and a respite, but it soon ended. The siege, after the overthrow of Morsi became tighter than ever before.
The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah did very little to help Gaza. To ensure the demise of Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority carried on with its "security coordination" with Israel, as Gaza suffered a Draconian siege. There was no question, that after all the failed attempts at breaking the siege and the growing isolation of Gaza, Gazans had to find their own way out of the blockade.
When Israeli began its bombardment campaign of Gaza on July 6, and a day later with the official launch of the so-called Operation Protective Edge, followed by a ground invasion, it may have seemed that Gaza was ready to surrender.
Political analysts have been advising that Hamas has been at its weakest following the downturn of the Arab Spring, the loss of its Egyptian allies, and the dramatic shift of its fortunes in Syria and, naturally Iran. The "Hamas is ready to fold" theory was advanced by the logic surrounding the unity agreement between Hamas and Fatah; and unity was seen largely as a concession by Hamas to Abbas’ Fatah movement, which continued to enjoy western political backing and monetary support.
The killing of three Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank in late June was the opportunity for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to test the misleading theory on Hamas' weakened position. He launched his war that eventually mounted into a genocide, hoping that Hamas and other resistance groups would be forced to disarm or be completely eradicated -- as promised by various Israeli officials.
But it didn't. From the very first days of the war it became clear the resistance could not be defeated, at least not as easily as Netanyahu had expected. The more troops he invested in the war on Gaza, the more Israeli army casualties increased.
Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
His latest book is "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story."
My old family house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza was recently rebuilt by its new owner, into a beautiful three-story building with large windows adorned by red frames.
In Israel's most recent and deadliest war on Gaza, the house sustained significant damage. A large hole caused by Israeli missiles can be seen from afar, in a part of the house where our kitchen once stood.
It seems that the original target was not my house, however, but that of our kindly neighbor, who had spent his entire working-life toiling between manual jobs in Israel, and later in life as a janitor for UN-operated schools in Gaza. The man's whole life savings were invested in his house where several families lived. After "warning" rockets blew up part of his house, several missiles pulverized the rest.
My entire neighborhood was also destroyed. I saw photos of the wreckage-filled neighborhood by accident on Facebook. The clearance where we played football as little kids was filled with holes left by missiles and shrapnel. The shop where I used my allowance to buy candy, was blown up.
Even the graveyard where our dead were meant to "rest in peace" was anything but peaceful. Signs of war and destruction were everywhere.
My last visit there was about two years ago. I caught up with my neighbors on the latest politics and the news of who was dead and who was still alive underneath the shady wall of my old house. One complained about his latest ailments, telling me that his son Mahmoud had been killed as he had been a freedom fighter with a Palestinian resistance movement.
I couldn't fathom the idea that Mahmoud, the child I remembered as running around half-naked with a runny nose, had become a fierce fighter with an automatic rifle ready to take on the Israeli army. But that he was, and he was killed on duty.
Time changes everything. Time has changed Gaza. But the strip was never a passive place of people subsisting on hand-outs or a pervasive sense of victimhood. Being a freedom fighter preceded any rational thinking about life and the many choices it had to offer growing up in a refugee camp, and all the little kids of my generation wanted to join the Fedayeen.
But options for Gazans are becoming much more limited than ever before, even for my generation.
Since Israel besieged Gaza with Egypt's help and coordination, life for Gazans has become largely about mere survival. The Strip has been turned into a massive ground for an Israeli experiment concerned with population control. Gazans were not allowed to venture out, fish, or farm, and those who got even close to some arbitrary "buffer zone," determined by the Israeli army within Gaza's own borders, were shot and often killed.
With time the population of the Strip knew that they were alone. The short stint that brought Mohammed Morsi to power in Egypt offered Gaza some hope and a respite, but it soon ended. The siege, after the overthrow of Morsi became tighter than ever before.
The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah did very little to help Gaza. To ensure the demise of Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority carried on with its "security coordination" with Israel, as Gaza suffered a Draconian siege. There was no question, that after all the failed attempts at breaking the siege and the growing isolation of Gaza, Gazans had to find their own way out of the blockade.
When Israeli began its bombardment campaign of Gaza on July 6, and a day later with the official launch of the so-called Operation Protective Edge, followed by a ground invasion, it may have seemed that Gaza was ready to surrender.
Political analysts have been advising that Hamas has been at its weakest following the downturn of the Arab Spring, the loss of its Egyptian allies, and the dramatic shift of its fortunes in Syria and, naturally Iran. The "Hamas is ready to fold" theory was advanced by the logic surrounding the unity agreement between Hamas and Fatah; and unity was seen largely as a concession by Hamas to Abbas’ Fatah movement, which continued to enjoy western political backing and monetary support.
The killing of three Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank in late June was the opportunity for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to test the misleading theory on Hamas' weakened position. He launched his war that eventually mounted into a genocide, hoping that Hamas and other resistance groups would be forced to disarm or be completely eradicated -- as promised by various Israeli officials.
But it didn't. From the very first days of the war it became clear the resistance could not be defeated, at least not as easily as Netanyahu had expected. The more troops he invested in the war on Gaza, the more Israeli army casualties increased.
Women at a Hamas rally in Gaza in 2012.
Netanyahu's response was to increase the price of Palestinian resistance by inflicting as much harm on Palestinian civilians as possible: He killed over 1,900, wounded nearly 10,000, a vast majority of whom were civilians, and destroyed numerous schools, mosques, hospitals, and thousands of homes, thus sending hundreds of thousands of people on the run. But where does one run when there is nowhere to go?
Israel's usual cautious political discourse was crumbling before Gaza's steadfastness. Israeli officials and media began to openly call for genocide. Middle East commentator Jeremy Salt explained:
"The more extreme of the extreme amongst the Zionists say out loud that the Palestinians have to be wiped out or at the very least driven into Sinai," he wrote, citing Moshe Feiglin, the deputy of the Israeli Knesset, who called for "full military conquest of the Gaza strip and the expulsion of its inhabitants. They would be held in tent encampments along the Sinai border while their final destination was decided. Those who continued to resist would be exterminated."
From Israeli commentator Yochanan Gordon, who flirted with genocide in "when genocide is permissible," to Ayelet Shaked, who advocated the killing of the mothers of those who resist and are killed by Israel. "They should follow their sons. Nothing would be more just. They should go as should the physical houses in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise more little snakes are raised," she wrote on Facebook.
References to genocide and extermination and other devastatingly violent language are no longer "claims" levied by Israeli critics, but a loud and daily self-indictment made by the Israelis themselves.
The Israelis are losing control of their decades-long hasbara, a propaganda scheme so carefully knitted and implemented, many the world over were fooled by it. Palestinians, those in Gaza in particular, were never blind to Israel’s genocidal intentions. They assembled their resistance with the full knowledge that a fight for their very survival awaited.
Israel's so-called Protective Edge is the final proof of Israel's unabashed face, that of genocide. It carried it out, this time paying little attention to the fact that the whole world was watching. Trending Twitter hashtags which began with #GazaUnderAttack, then #GazaResists, quickly morphed to #GazaHolocaust. The latter was used by many that never thought they would dare make such comparisons.
Gaza managed to keep Israel at bay in a battle of historic proportions. Once its children are buried, it will once again rebuild its defenses for the next battle. For Palestinians in Gaza, this is not about mere resistance strategies, but their very survival.
Netanyahu's response was to increase the price of Palestinian resistance by inflicting as much harm on Palestinian civilians as possible: He killed over 1,900, wounded nearly 10,000, a vast majority of whom were civilians, and destroyed numerous schools, mosques, hospitals, and thousands of homes, thus sending hundreds of thousands of people on the run. But where does one run when there is nowhere to go?
Israel's usual cautious political discourse was crumbling before Gaza's steadfastness. Israeli officials and media began to openly call for genocide. Middle East commentator Jeremy Salt explained:
"The more extreme of the extreme amongst the Zionists say out loud that the Palestinians have to be wiped out or at the very least driven into Sinai," he wrote, citing Moshe Feiglin, the deputy of the Israeli Knesset, who called for "full military conquest of the Gaza strip and the expulsion of its inhabitants. They would be held in tent encampments along the Sinai border while their final destination was decided. Those who continued to resist would be exterminated."
From Israeli commentator Yochanan Gordon, who flirted with genocide in "when genocide is permissible," to Ayelet Shaked, who advocated the killing of the mothers of those who resist and are killed by Israel. "They should follow their sons. Nothing would be more just. They should go as should the physical houses in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise more little snakes are raised," she wrote on Facebook.
References to genocide and extermination and other devastatingly violent language are no longer "claims" levied by Israeli critics, but a loud and daily self-indictment made by the Israelis themselves.
The Israelis are losing control of their decades-long hasbara, a propaganda scheme so carefully knitted and implemented, many the world over were fooled by it. Palestinians, those in Gaza in particular, were never blind to Israel’s genocidal intentions. They assembled their resistance with the full knowledge that a fight for their very survival awaited.
Israel's so-called Protective Edge is the final proof of Israel's unabashed face, that of genocide. It carried it out, this time paying little attention to the fact that the whole world was watching. Trending Twitter hashtags which began with #GazaUnderAttack, then #GazaResists, quickly morphed to #GazaHolocaust. The latter was used by many that never thought they would dare make such comparisons.
Gaza managed to keep Israel at bay in a battle of historic proportions. Once its children are buried, it will once again rebuild its defenses for the next battle. For Palestinians in Gaza, this is not about mere resistance strategies, but their very survival.
Israel secured supplies of ammunition from the Pentagon last month without the approval of the White House or the State Department, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Since officials there were caught off guard as they tried to restrain Israel's campaign in Gaza, the administration of President Barack Obama has tightened controls on arms shipments to Israel, the newspaper said, quoting US and Israeli officials.
But the case illustrated that the White House and the State Department have little influence over the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the paper said, quoting officials from both countries.
The Journal said that US officials, rather than play their traditional role as mediators, have now been reduced to bystanders as Israeli forces and Hamas battle it out.
On Wednesday, the paper said, Obama and Netanyahu had a particularly tense phone call.
Netanyahu has "pushed the administration aside" but wants America to give Israel security assurances in exchange for agreeing to a long-term deal with Hamas, the Journal said, quoting US officials.
Israel and militants in Gaza were holding their fire Thursday after a new truce got off to a shaky start, with night-time Palestinian rocket fire followed by Israeli airstrikes.
Since officials there were caught off guard as they tried to restrain Israel's campaign in Gaza, the administration of President Barack Obama has tightened controls on arms shipments to Israel, the newspaper said, quoting US and Israeli officials.
But the case illustrated that the White House and the State Department have little influence over the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the paper said, quoting officials from both countries.
The Journal said that US officials, rather than play their traditional role as mediators, have now been reduced to bystanders as Israeli forces and Hamas battle it out.
On Wednesday, the paper said, Obama and Netanyahu had a particularly tense phone call.
Netanyahu has "pushed the administration aside" but wants America to give Israel security assurances in exchange for agreeing to a long-term deal with Hamas, the Journal said, quoting US officials.
Israel and militants in Gaza were holding their fire Thursday after a new truce got off to a shaky start, with night-time Palestinian rocket fire followed by Israeli airstrikes.
Hamas' military wing is continuing to produce M75 missiles in the besieged coastal enclave, the group said Thursday.
The Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa TV channel aired footage Wednesday showing a workshop manufacturing rockets in the Gaza Strip.
"Your futile leadership claimed they destroyed our missile potency, but our manufacturers continue to produce missiles and send them to the field," a member of the manufacturing crew says in the footage.
M75 rockets are locally produced in Gaza by Hamas engineers and have a range of roughly 80 kilometers.
They were fired at Tel Aviv for the first time during Israel's 2012 military assault on Gaza.
The Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa TV channel aired footage Wednesday showing a workshop manufacturing rockets in the Gaza Strip.
"Your futile leadership claimed they destroyed our missile potency, but our manufacturers continue to produce missiles and send them to the field," a member of the manufacturing crew says in the footage.
M75 rockets are locally produced in Gaza by Hamas engineers and have a range of roughly 80 kilometers.
They were fired at Tel Aviv for the first time during Israel's 2012 military assault on Gaza.
Egyptian authorities denied entry to a Kuwaiti delegation bringing aid to the Gaza Strip on Thursday as it opened the Rafah crossing for humanitarian cases.
Palestinian crossing officials said that injured Palestinians, medical patients and foreign nationals were allowed to use the crossing and Gaza residents in Egypt were allowed to return.
Egyptian security prevented a four-man Kuwaiti delegation carrying medical aid from entering Gaza.
No reason was given for the refusal.
Egyptian authorities have largely kept the Rafah crossing closed since the army ousted President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
The terminal is the only border crossing that most of Gaza's 1.8 million people can use to leave the enclave.
Palestinian crossing officials said that injured Palestinians, medical patients and foreign nationals were allowed to use the crossing and Gaza residents in Egypt were allowed to return.
Egyptian security prevented a four-man Kuwaiti delegation carrying medical aid from entering Gaza.
No reason was given for the refusal.
Egyptian authorities have largely kept the Rafah crossing closed since the army ousted President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
The terminal is the only border crossing that most of Gaza's 1.8 million people can use to leave the enclave.
Israel and Gaza fighters were holding their fire Thursday morning after a new truce got off to a shaky start, with night-time rocket fire followed by Israeli air strikes.
The Israeli army said that there had been no fighting for several hours, since Israeli air raids into Gaza finished around 3 a.m.
Palestinians had fired two rockets into southern Israel two hours earlier, after a five-day ceasefire extension was to have taken effect.
An army spokeswoman said that aircraft hit rocket-launching sites, weapons caches and "centers of terrorist activity" but could not give a precise number.
An official at the Palestinian interior ministry reported four air strikes over open ground about 30 minutes after an existing 72-hour truce was extended at midnight for another five days.
More than 1,950 Palestinians and 67 people on the Israeli side have been killed since July 8, when Israel launched its offensive.
After days of shuttle diplomacy, the agreement clinched by Egypt ushered in what is potentially the longest period of calm in the five-week conflict and will allow more time for talks on the thorniest issues that separate the two sides, the Palestinians said.
An earlier truce collapsed in a firestorm of violence on August 8.
Palestinian negotiator Azzam al-Ahmad said in Cairo that more time was needed to discuss "some" remaining disputes with Israel over a long-term truce.
5 Palestinians, journalist killed
On Wednesday, five Gazans and an Italian journalist were killed in the northern town of Beit Lahiya in a blast as a Palestinian bomb disposal squad was trying to disarm an unexploded Israeli missile.
The Associated Press confirmed that one of its cameramen and a freelance Palestinian translator were killed, identifying them as Simone Camilli, 35, from Italy, and Ali Shehda Abu Afash, 36.
Besides his work as a translator, Abu Afash also worked part-time as an administrative assistant in AFP's Gaza bureau.
The Gaza interior ministry said its top bomb disposal expert in the north had been killed, naming him as Taysir Lahum.
There had been fears on both sides that hostilities could resume.
Dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers approached the border area with Gaza on Wednesday evening.
"We have already sacrificed 64 men and it is possible we may have to sacrifice more," Israel's chief of staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said at a military ceremony, his remarks broadcast on army radio.
In Cairo, the chief Palestinian negotiator said there was an agreement "on many points" concerning the key Palestinian demand to end an eight-year Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The negotiators needed more time to settle "some" remaining disputes, he told reporters.
The joint Palestinian delegation, which includes Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, will leave Cairo on Thursday to consult with their leaderships, he said.
Mediators proposed that talks on a seaport and airport in Gaza be delayed until a month after a permanent ceasefire takes effect, according to an Egyptian proposal contained in documents seen by AFP.
Negotiations about handing over the remains of two dead Israeli soldiers in exchange for the release of prisoners in Israeli jails would also be postponed, according to the document.
A buffer zone along Gaza's border with Israel would be gradually reduced and guarded by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas's security teams.
Israel has said it will facilitate Gaza's reconstruction only if the enclave is fully disarmed, a demand rejected by the Palestinians.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon meanwhile briefed US counterpart Chuck Hagel on the ceasefire.
Hagel reiterated his support for Egypt's mediation efforts and underscored the importance of achieving a sustainable outcome that ensures Israel's security and addresses Gaza's humanitarian crisis, the Pentagon said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the UN Human Rights Council over a planned probe over alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza, saying it granted "legitimacy" to murderous terror organizations like Hamas" by overlooking "massacres" committed elsewhere in the Middle East.
The Israeli army said that there had been no fighting for several hours, since Israeli air raids into Gaza finished around 3 a.m.
Palestinians had fired two rockets into southern Israel two hours earlier, after a five-day ceasefire extension was to have taken effect.
An army spokeswoman said that aircraft hit rocket-launching sites, weapons caches and "centers of terrorist activity" but could not give a precise number.
An official at the Palestinian interior ministry reported four air strikes over open ground about 30 minutes after an existing 72-hour truce was extended at midnight for another five days.
More than 1,950 Palestinians and 67 people on the Israeli side have been killed since July 8, when Israel launched its offensive.
After days of shuttle diplomacy, the agreement clinched by Egypt ushered in what is potentially the longest period of calm in the five-week conflict and will allow more time for talks on the thorniest issues that separate the two sides, the Palestinians said.
An earlier truce collapsed in a firestorm of violence on August 8.
Palestinian negotiator Azzam al-Ahmad said in Cairo that more time was needed to discuss "some" remaining disputes with Israel over a long-term truce.
5 Palestinians, journalist killed
On Wednesday, five Gazans and an Italian journalist were killed in the northern town of Beit Lahiya in a blast as a Palestinian bomb disposal squad was trying to disarm an unexploded Israeli missile.
The Associated Press confirmed that one of its cameramen and a freelance Palestinian translator were killed, identifying them as Simone Camilli, 35, from Italy, and Ali Shehda Abu Afash, 36.
Besides his work as a translator, Abu Afash also worked part-time as an administrative assistant in AFP's Gaza bureau.
The Gaza interior ministry said its top bomb disposal expert in the north had been killed, naming him as Taysir Lahum.
There had been fears on both sides that hostilities could resume.
Dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers approached the border area with Gaza on Wednesday evening.
"We have already sacrificed 64 men and it is possible we may have to sacrifice more," Israel's chief of staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said at a military ceremony, his remarks broadcast on army radio.
In Cairo, the chief Palestinian negotiator said there was an agreement "on many points" concerning the key Palestinian demand to end an eight-year Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The negotiators needed more time to settle "some" remaining disputes, he told reporters.
The joint Palestinian delegation, which includes Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, will leave Cairo on Thursday to consult with their leaderships, he said.
Mediators proposed that talks on a seaport and airport in Gaza be delayed until a month after a permanent ceasefire takes effect, according to an Egyptian proposal contained in documents seen by AFP.
Negotiations about handing over the remains of two dead Israeli soldiers in exchange for the release of prisoners in Israeli jails would also be postponed, according to the document.
A buffer zone along Gaza's border with Israel would be gradually reduced and guarded by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas's security teams.
Israel has said it will facilitate Gaza's reconstruction only if the enclave is fully disarmed, a demand rejected by the Palestinians.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon meanwhile briefed US counterpart Chuck Hagel on the ceasefire.
Hagel reiterated his support for Egypt's mediation efforts and underscored the importance of achieving a sustainable outcome that ensures Israel's security and addresses Gaza's humanitarian crisis, the Pentagon said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the UN Human Rights Council over a planned probe over alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza, saying it granted "legitimacy" to murderous terror organizations like Hamas" by overlooking "massacres" committed elsewhere in the Middle East.
Palestinian medical sources have reported that a man was killed on Wednesday evening, when an explosive object -- likely to have been fired by Israel, previously -- detonated close to him in the Rabwat area, west of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources said resident Kamal ad-Daly, 26, died of his wounds at the Nasser Medical Center in Khan Younis.
Police and security forces in Gaza have initiated an investigation into the issue.
Earlier Wednesday, five people, including an Italian journalist were killed and another six seriously injured by an unexploded Israeli missile which blew up in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. They have been identified as:
1. Camille Simon, Italian Journalist, 37.
2. Bilal Mohammad Sultan, 27. (Lieutenant)
3. Taiseer Ali al-Houm, 40. (Engineering Corps)
4. Hazem Abu Morad, 38. (Deputy Head Of The Engineering Corps)
5. Ali Shihda Abu Afsh (Reporter).
Also, a Palestinian woman died at a Jordanian hospital of serious injuries suffered in an earlier Israeli bombardment of Gaza. She has been identified as:
6. Deema Klob, Gaza.
Medical sources said resident Kamal ad-Daly, 26, died of his wounds at the Nasser Medical Center in Khan Younis.
Police and security forces in Gaza have initiated an investigation into the issue.
Earlier Wednesday, five people, including an Italian journalist were killed and another six seriously injured by an unexploded Israeli missile which blew up in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. They have been identified as:
1. Camille Simon, Italian Journalist, 37.
2. Bilal Mohammad Sultan, 27. (Lieutenant)
3. Taiseer Ali al-Houm, 40. (Engineering Corps)
4. Hazem Abu Morad, 38. (Deputy Head Of The Engineering Corps)
5. Ali Shihda Abu Afsh (Reporter).
Also, a Palestinian woman died at a Jordanian hospital of serious injuries suffered in an earlier Israeli bombardment of Gaza. She has been identified as:
6. Deema Klob, Gaza.
A local resident inspects heavy damage at the historical al-Omari mosque in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, on August 2, 2014
The Israeli missile tore through the vaulted ceiling and pulverized age-old sandstone. One direct hit destroyed the Omari mosque in Jabaliya and dealt another blow to Gaza's beleaguered heritage.
The site is believed to have housed a mosque since the seventh century and parts of the Omari were said to date back to the 14th century.
A modern building was added several years ago, but the Omari had been one of Gaza's few remaining historic buildings. Now it stands in ruins.
The muezzin was killed after he had given the call to prayer, residents said.
The narrow sliver of territory tucked into the eastern Mediterranean between Egypt and Israel has been home to settled communities since at least 3,300 BC, historians say, governed by the Caananites, Pharoahs, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines before the arrival of Islam in the seventh century AD.
It was ruled by the Mamluk dynasty in the 13th century, and three centuries later joined the Ottoman Empire, which held sway until the British took the area in 1917.
But Gaza has relatively little to show for its history.
Centuries of conquest and conflict, and rapid population growth since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 have hit the enclave's cultural heritage badly. Squat apartment blocks built from breeze blocks line many of the city's streets.
"It's not a priority for anyone," said Yasmeen al-Khoudary, who helps curate a private museum set up by her engineer father Jawdat.
"When you think of Gaza you never think of history, or ancient Gaza or archaeology, you always think food, medicine, refugee camps, Hamas."
To compensate for the lack of state-funded museums, her father started collecting artifacts from the Canaanite era to World War I that he unearthed while working as an engineer.
He set up the private museum on the seafront in Gaza City in 2008 to showcase the ancient pottery, coins, bronze work and weapons.
He added a restaurant and hotel, incorporating historic items into the center: the pillars on the verandah at the restaurant were originally part of the tracks of the railway that ran through Gaza.
Yasmeen said her family planned to expand the collection and renovate the museum, and that two French archaeologists visited in April to help.
One returned to continue her work in early July, but was forced to leave as soon as the war started.
Indirect damage
Stood in the rubble of the Omari mosque, Ahmed al-Barsh, from the tourism and antiquities ministry, says the fighting has caused both direct and indirect damage to Gaza's heritage since it broke out on July 8.
"Indirect damage since it was impossible for visitors, foreigners, students and scholars to enter," he said.
Even before the war, the Israeli blockade imposed in 2007 made his work nearly impossible, he said.
Israeli authorities restrict the entry to Gaza of some key construction materials, including cement and steel, which they say Hamas could use to build attack tunnels, and so renovations look difficult.
"Israel banned the entry of materials for renovation, and international foundations and organizations working in the field cut support," Barsh said.
Another site obliterated in the latest fighting was the 15th century al-Mahkamah mosque in Shejaiyah, in Gaza City, one of the neighborhoods worst hit by shelling.
All that remains of the original structure is the Mamluk-era sandstone minaret, its intricately patterned masonry still intact in a pile of rubble, electricity cables and twisted metal.
But it is the Darraj neighbourhood which is home to some of Gaza's oldest buildings, including the Grand Omari Mosque and the Church of Saint Porphyrius, both of them in good condition.
The Hamam al-Samara, Gaza's only remaining Turkish bath, has served the residents of Darraj for more than 1,000 years, and has more recently become a tourist attraction for the few who visit.
Mohamed al-Wazeer's family has run the baths for nearly 100 years, but they were forced to shut when the conflict began on July 8.
"The war happened to everyone. Everyone who had a business shut it," he shrugged as he smoked a cigarette under the domed ceiling of his empty bath house.
He plans to reopen as soon as a permanent truce is reached. Despite the financial damage caused by the war, he plans to use the hammam to offer Gazans a respite from the war.
He said he would encourage people to return and relax in the baths by cutting entry from 20 shekels to 10, "out of solidarity with the people, because of the situation we have just been through."
The Israeli missile tore through the vaulted ceiling and pulverized age-old sandstone. One direct hit destroyed the Omari mosque in Jabaliya and dealt another blow to Gaza's beleaguered heritage.
The site is believed to have housed a mosque since the seventh century and parts of the Omari were said to date back to the 14th century.
A modern building was added several years ago, but the Omari had been one of Gaza's few remaining historic buildings. Now it stands in ruins.
The muezzin was killed after he had given the call to prayer, residents said.
The narrow sliver of territory tucked into the eastern Mediterranean between Egypt and Israel has been home to settled communities since at least 3,300 BC, historians say, governed by the Caananites, Pharoahs, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines before the arrival of Islam in the seventh century AD.
It was ruled by the Mamluk dynasty in the 13th century, and three centuries later joined the Ottoman Empire, which held sway until the British took the area in 1917.
But Gaza has relatively little to show for its history.
Centuries of conquest and conflict, and rapid population growth since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 have hit the enclave's cultural heritage badly. Squat apartment blocks built from breeze blocks line many of the city's streets.
"It's not a priority for anyone," said Yasmeen al-Khoudary, who helps curate a private museum set up by her engineer father Jawdat.
"When you think of Gaza you never think of history, or ancient Gaza or archaeology, you always think food, medicine, refugee camps, Hamas."
To compensate for the lack of state-funded museums, her father started collecting artifacts from the Canaanite era to World War I that he unearthed while working as an engineer.
He set up the private museum on the seafront in Gaza City in 2008 to showcase the ancient pottery, coins, bronze work and weapons.
He added a restaurant and hotel, incorporating historic items into the center: the pillars on the verandah at the restaurant were originally part of the tracks of the railway that ran through Gaza.
Yasmeen said her family planned to expand the collection and renovate the museum, and that two French archaeologists visited in April to help.
One returned to continue her work in early July, but was forced to leave as soon as the war started.
Indirect damage
Stood in the rubble of the Omari mosque, Ahmed al-Barsh, from the tourism and antiquities ministry, says the fighting has caused both direct and indirect damage to Gaza's heritage since it broke out on July 8.
"Indirect damage since it was impossible for visitors, foreigners, students and scholars to enter," he said.
Even before the war, the Israeli blockade imposed in 2007 made his work nearly impossible, he said.
Israeli authorities restrict the entry to Gaza of some key construction materials, including cement and steel, which they say Hamas could use to build attack tunnels, and so renovations look difficult.
"Israel banned the entry of materials for renovation, and international foundations and organizations working in the field cut support," Barsh said.
Another site obliterated in the latest fighting was the 15th century al-Mahkamah mosque in Shejaiyah, in Gaza City, one of the neighborhoods worst hit by shelling.
All that remains of the original structure is the Mamluk-era sandstone minaret, its intricately patterned masonry still intact in a pile of rubble, electricity cables and twisted metal.
But it is the Darraj neighbourhood which is home to some of Gaza's oldest buildings, including the Grand Omari Mosque and the Church of Saint Porphyrius, both of them in good condition.
The Hamam al-Samara, Gaza's only remaining Turkish bath, has served the residents of Darraj for more than 1,000 years, and has more recently become a tourist attraction for the few who visit.
Mohamed al-Wazeer's family has run the baths for nearly 100 years, but they were forced to shut when the conflict began on July 8.
"The war happened to everyone. Everyone who had a business shut it," he shrugged as he smoked a cigarette under the domed ceiling of his empty bath house.
He plans to reopen as soon as a permanent truce is reached. Despite the financial damage caused by the war, he plans to use the hammam to offer Gazans a respite from the war.
He said he would encourage people to return and relax in the baths by cutting entry from 20 shekels to 10, "out of solidarity with the people, because of the situation we have just been through."
Israeli aircraft carried out airstrikes across Gaza early Thursday in response to Palestinian rocket fire and shortly after a new ceasefire brokered by Egypt came into effect, officials said.
An official at the Palestinian interior ministry reported four airstrikes over open ground about 30 minutes into the extension of a new truce, from midnight, which the Palestinians announced would last for five days.
Israel said its military was targeting "terror sites across the Gaza Strip" in response to rocket fire.
The military "remains alert and maintains a high level of preparedness with both defensive capabilities, and striking capabilities in order to address a renewed aggression and will immediately respond to any threat to Israel," it said.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said that Palestinian militants launched six rockets toward Israel late Wednesday, four of which hit open areas and one of which was intercepted.
No rocket attacks were immediately reported after midnight. An Egyptian official announced that both Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to extend the ceasefire.
An official at the Palestinian interior ministry reported four airstrikes over open ground about 30 minutes into the extension of a new truce, from midnight, which the Palestinians announced would last for five days.
Israel said its military was targeting "terror sites across the Gaza Strip" in response to rocket fire.
The military "remains alert and maintains a high level of preparedness with both defensive capabilities, and striking capabilities in order to address a renewed aggression and will immediately respond to any threat to Israel," it said.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said that Palestinian militants launched six rockets toward Israel late Wednesday, four of which hit open areas and one of which was intercepted.
No rocket attacks were immediately reported after midnight. An Egyptian official announced that both Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to extend the ceasefire.
