At least three attackers in Egypt\’s Sinai peninsula, probably drugs smugglers, were killed after they opened fire on Israeli soldiers across the border on Wednesday and wounded two, the Israeli military said.
A Palestinian official close to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has told The Media Line that security preparations are underway for the president to visit the Gaza Strip in the next few weeks: the first time since 2006.
Israeli air strikes killed at least nine Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and militants kept up cross-border rocket fire on Monday as Israel moved to cushion its economy against the effects of a war now in its seventh week.
Despite talk of popular pique at Khaled Meshaal because of his accumulated wealth and impetuous goading of Israel from the safe distance of 1,200 miles while the Gaza Strip suffered carnage and devastation, the Hamas leader-in-exile has nevertheless emerged from the month-long siege of Gaza with a solid majority of Gazans feeling he casts a “positive” image.
A spokesperson for the Islamic Jihad in Gaza said a cease-fire agreement will be signed with Israel next week, though Israeli officials have not confirmed this.
Israeli assassination attempts may have left him badly hurt and driven him deep underground, but Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of Hamas\’ armed wing in the Gaza Strip, has emerged as a mastermind of the war with Israel.
The Israeli and Palestinian delegations reportedly agreed to extend their cease-fire for at least three days, according to several news reports.
A Hamas spokesman denied on Wednesday any rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel, after the Israeli military and police reported a rocket launched from the territory had landed in southern Israel.
Israel fired almost five times more artillery shells into Gaza during the last month of fighting than in the 2008-2009 war there but did not use controversial white phosphorous this time around, an Israeli general said on Tuesday.
With news of the latest cease-fire between Israel and Gaza just announced (on Sunday), residents on both sides will now seek to return to their routines.
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