Israel, Hamas deny reports of 6-month ceasefire

Israel and Hamas say there is no six-month ceasefire agreement, contradicting earlier reports.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel and Hamas both denied earlier reports that the two parties had reached a six-month ceasefire agreement.

Israel’s Channel 12 had reported on Monday night that an arrangement had been brokered with the help of mediation efforts by Egypt and the United Nations.

Under the terms of the reported agreement, Hamas would cease violent clashes, including nightly ones, along the border with Israel, maintain a 300-meter buffer zone from the border for its protests, and prevent flotillas from reaching Gaza’s shores.

Israel in turn would ease the humanitarian situation for Gazans at the border crossings, advance U.N. employment program and infrastructure development, and expand the fishing zone.

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying “There are no new understandings with Hamas.”

Hamas also denied the six-month truce. A Hamas spokesman said, “What was agreed by Egyptian, Qatari and international mediation” is “a temporary ceasefire as long as the occupation implements all understandings.”

One part of the report at least appears to be accurate and Israel has announced it will expand Gaza’s fishing zone to 15 miles.

In the first weekend of May, Israel was subjected to a rocket barrage of 700 rockets from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. It was the latest episode in an ongoing war of attrition between Hamas and Israel.

Another Gaza- terror group, the Iran-sponsored Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said there would be war this summer, describing the latest round as “just preparation for the greater battle.”

Since Israel abandoned the Gaza Strip in 2005, destroying 17 Jewish towns and forcibly evicting some 8,600 Israeli civilians, it has been targeted by increasingly sophisticated missile attacks from the area.

Israel has launched several large military campaigns into the Strip in an effort to quell the terrorist violence directed at its civilian populations, including Operation Cast Lead and Operation Protective Edge.