Hamas’s Haniya says Israel must cease fire, implement agreements

Ismail Haniya, the political director of Hamas, said late Sunday that Israel bore the responsibility to “calm” the current military conflict between the two, the New York Times reported.

Haniya said “returning to the state of calm is possible and depends on the occupation’s commitment to a complete cease-fire” and on the “immediate start of implementing the understandings” the sides had reached earlier with Egypt’s help after Hamas agreed to restrain protests along its frontier.

Still, he threatened to escalate if Israel did not comply, and more Israeli alerts of incoming rockets soon followed.

Israel said Gazans had launched 600 projectiles in two days, firing hundreds of rockets that had been hidden away in arsenals.