JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s military resumed operations against Hamas in Gaza, six hours after accepting an Egyptian cease-fire proposal, following rocket attacks from the strip.
The resumption of operations in Gaza was announced at about 3 p.m. Tuesday after more than 40 rockets were fired from Gaza throughout Israel in the hours after Israel halted attacks in observance of the cease-fire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned earlier Tuesday that he would order the intensification of operation against Hamas if it continued to fire rockets at Israeli civilians.
“If Hamas rejects the Egyptian proposal, and the rocket fire from Gaza does not cease, and that appears to be the case now, we are prepared to continue and intensify our operation to protect our people,” Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry slammed Hamas for continuing its rocket fire, reiterating that the United States considers it a terrorist organization.
“I cannot condemn strongly enough the actions of Hamas in so brazenly firing rockets in multiple numbers in the face of a goodwill effort to offer a cease-fire, in which Egypt and Israel worked together, that the international community strongly supports,” Kerry said in Vienna on Tuesday morning.
“The Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire and negotiations provides an opportunity to end the violence and restore calm. We welcome the Israeli Cabinet’s decision to accept it. We urge all other parties to accept the proposal,” he said
Kerry had been set to go to Egypt on Tuesday to press for the cease-fire, but canceled the last-minute trip after Israel accepted the proposal. His spokeswoman told reporters that Kerry has been in contact with the Egyptians, Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas since the beginning of Israel’s Operation Defensive Edge began eight days ago.
Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, the chief peace negotiator with the Palestinians, also threatened Hamas if it did not stop firing rockets.
“Israel is giving the Hamas an opportunity to also accept the Egyptian proposal, to stop firing and to stop a painful Israeli response that it will suffer if it continues to fire rockets,” Livni said, according to Haaretz. “If Hamas doesn’t take up the proposal, Israel will continue to use force against it — and a lot of it.”
Following a meeting Tuesday morning with Tony Blair, special envoy of the Quartet — the international grouping that mediates the peace talks — Israeli President Shimon Peres asserted that Israel would continue to defend itself against rocket fire from Gaza, saying “it is our moral responsibility and our sovereign right.”
Peres added, “We all wish to lower the flames, we want an end to the fighting and we hope to see it soon. But there can be no compromise with terror. A cease-fire must be on these terms. No more rockets. No more terror.”
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