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Hamas: Israel must immediately lift Gaza restrictions if it wants quiet

Hamas said that “already tonight, Israel must rescind the sanctions and ease conditions,” reported Kan on Tuesday evening.

By World Israel News Staff  

Hamas, the terror organization which runs the Gaza Strip, is demanding that Israel immediately lift restrictions on the Strip that it imposed when Islamic Jihad fired dozens of rockets from Gaza into southern Israel on Sunday and Monday, reports Israeli Kan public broadcasting.

Relaying the message through mediators, Hamas said that “already tonight, Israel must rescind the sanctions and ease conditions,” reported Kan on Tuesday evening.

The moves taken by Israel in response to the latest rocket barrage from Gaza included closing border crossings, which meant rescinding permits for some 7,000 Palestinian businesspeople and laborers from entering the Jewish State.

Israel also reduced the fishing zone off the Mediterranean coast for Gazan residents.

According to Palestinian sources cited in the report, while Israel is demanding a stop to rocket attacks to reverse the restrictions, it is not requiring a halt to the cross-border launching of booby-trapped balloons, which have caused extensive economic and emotional damage to Israeli residents living near Gaza.

The Israeli defense establishment is said to support the negotiating efforts toward maintaining calm, though Hamas is viewed as “not showing motivation” to act to ensure that Islamic Jihad refrains from carrying out future rocket attacks, Kan reports.

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The latest round of rocket attacks began late Sunday afternoon, hours after Israel eliminated a terrorist who had tried to place a bomb along the Israel-Gaza barrier fence.

Islamic Jihad announced a unilateral ceasefire on Monday, saying that it had completed its “retaliation” for the killing of three of its members, though it vowed to respond to any further Israeli “aggression.”

The IDF reported that it had retaliated for the rocket attacks by striking terror compounds.