Live blog: Gaza under attack
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Nidal al-Mughrabi, writing for Reuters, has written about the damage the fighting in Gaza has done its economy:
"Mohammed Mustafa, the Palestinian deputy prime minister, said the postwar reconstruction of Gaza would cost at least $6 billion.
"Palestinians hope that donors will make good on their aid pledges. In 2009, only a fraction of the nearly $5 billion in funds promised at an international conference after a three-week war between Israel and Gaza's ruling Hamas faction actually arrived in the battered enclave.
"The present Israeli bombardment has not spared factories that were demolished in 2009 and rebuilt."
Israeli media is reporting that the European Union has proposed a controlled sea corridor between Gaza and Larnaca, Cyprus.
"Ships carrying goods to and from Gaza would only be allowed to do so through the Larnaca port, while European observers would oversee the shipments on both ends of the corridor to ensure they did not include materials intended for rearming Gaza’s armed groups," wrote the Times of Israel.
The newspaper reports that According to the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam, quoted by Israel Radio reporter Gal Berger, the corridor would also allow people to enter and leave Gaza.
The Israeli army on Friday issued a “protection instructions” for Israeli civilians near border with the Gaza Strip following the end of a temporary ceasefire with Palestinian factions.
In a statement, the army said that gatherings of more than 500 civilians are forbidden in cities and towns located between 0-40 km from the Gaza Strip.
Pierre Klochendler discusses how In adversity, it has become necessary for both Israelis and Palestinians not only to exclude any identification with the other's pain but also to inflict pain on the other
Airstrikes have been confirmed in Al-Sheikh Ejleen in Gaza, as Israel responds to rocket fire from the Al-Quds Brigade.
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The Israeli army has stated that fighters in the Gaza Strip fired at least 5 rockets at Israel minutes after a 72-hour truce between Hamas and Israel ended without agreement to extend it.
The Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the al-Quds Brigade, took responsibility for firing "three Grad rockets at Ashkelon" in a statement.
Friday 8 August, 2014
All Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip have refused to extend a three-day truce with Israel, the militant Hamas group that dominates the enclave said Friday, as the ceasefire ended.
"All the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, have agreed not to renew the ceasefire because (Israel) is refusing to accommodate our demands, but negotiations continue in Cairo," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP.
The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian faction Hamas, have called on negotiators to withdraw from talks in Cairo if Israel failed to meet Palestinian demands, including lifting a years-long blockade on the Gaza Strip.
"If our demands are not met, including the creation of a seaport, negotiators must withdraw from the negotiations and end this game," Qassam spokesman Abu Ubaydeh said in a televised speech.
He called on Palestinian negotiators not to extend a ceasefire with Israel if the self-proclaimed Jewish state failed to meet the Palestinian demands.
"The resistance is capable of imposing its own conditions and the conditions of our people," the spokesman said.
An Israeli delegation has arrived in Cairo to participate in indirect talks with Palestinian factions aimed at reaching a long-term ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a security source at Cairo Airport said.
The four-member delegation was welcomed at the airport by Egyptian intelligence officials and headed to the venue of the talks, the source told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity.
The delegation had left the Egyptian capital on Wednesday for Tel Aviv for consultations with the Israeli government.
Earlier on Thursday, Israel's Channel II reported that the delegation had updated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon about the Cairo talks.
Concerned about world opinion and accusations of possible war crimes, Mr. Netanyahu took the rare step of calling in the foreign news media to his office, where he made his first public remarks the day after a 72-hour cease-fire took effect and as talks for a more lasting solution got underway in Cairo.
An Israeli official said Israel would be willing to extend the cease-fire as long as it remained unconditional, reported the New York Times.
“Every civilian casualty is a tragedy, a tragedy of Hamas’s own making,” Mr. Netanyahu said, blaming Hamas for embedding its fighters among civilians in residential areas.
Israel, he said, acted to protect its citizens from thousands of rockets fired from Gaza and from attacks by “death squads” through tunnels running under the border into Israel.