JERUSALEM
The Israeli government on Saturday decided to extend by four hours a humanitarian ceasefire that had already come to an end in the Gaza Strip a short time ago on Saturday, an Israeli source said.
He said the extension means that the humanitarian lull in Gaza would come to an end at 21:00 GMT, instead of 17:00 GMT.
The Israeli newspaper Maariv quoted the source as saying that Israel's security cabinet had approved the new four-hour extension.
Israel and the Palestinians had earlier agreed to a U.N.-proposed 12-hour humanitarian calm in Gaza to give the Palestinian enclave's residents the chance to buy their needs and hospitals to get medical supplies after three weeks of continual Israeli attacks against Gaza. The ceasefire came to an end at 17:00 GMT.
Maariv said on its website that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked the cabinet to approve a 4-hour ceasefire extension in Gaza.
The Israeli Prime Minister, however, said that his army would continue to crack down on tunnels in the Gaza Strip during the new 4-hour lull.
Gaza-based resistance movements have not, meanwhile, commented on the ceasefire extension yet. Anadolu Agency could not immediately obtain comments from any of these movements on the extension either.
Israeli sources at the same time said Israel's security cabinet would convene before Saturday's midnight to discuss Israel's future approach to the situation in Gaza.
Israel's Channel 10 quoted an official source as saying that the cabinet would convene at 21:30 (81:30 GMT).
The channel said the security cabinet would discuss Israel's approach to Gaza in the future as well as ceasefire initiatives in this regard.
The humanitarian lull came hard on the heels of intensive Israeli shelling of homes and sites in the Gaza Strip, shelling that started on July 7.
At least 1032 Palestinians have been killed – mostly civilians – and more than 5900 others injured in Israel's offensive, now in its third week.
Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, fired rocket at Israeli cities in response to relentless Israeli bombardments.
Israel's military operation, dubbed operation "Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populate Gaza Strip – which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – within the last six years.
By Alaa Rimawi
www.aa.com.tr/en
