With a humanitarian crisis exploding in Gaza during day 9 of the conflict that has taken the lives of over 200 Palestinians, largely civilians, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire that began earlier today to enable food and supplies to get to the tens of thousands of displaced people.
“The Israeli military said in a statement Wednesday that it would hold its fire for five hours starting at 10:00 a.m. local time on Thursday.
It warned however that it will retaliate “firmly and decisively” if Hamas or other militant groups launch attacks on Israel during that time.
The spokesman for Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, later confirmed to Fox News that Hamas had accepted the truce.
The cease-fire request came from U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Robert Serry, Haaretz reports. After news of the cease-fire broke, Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile defense system continued to intercept rockets heading toward Israel, the newspaper added.
Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the international community to condemn Hamas for committing a “double war crime” of firing barrages of rockets at Israelis while using Palestinians as human shields.” Read more here.
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