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 As rocket-warning sirens sounded in southern Israel, the military
said Hamas had fired at least 18 rockets from Gaza and Israel's
"Iron Dome" interceptor system brought down two. Gaza militants said
they had fired 10 rockets on Friday.
In the first casualties since hostilities resumed on Friday,
Palestinian medical officials said a 10-year-old boy was killed in
an Israeli strike near a mosque in Gaza City. In Israel, police said
two people were injured by mortar fire from Gaza.
After a huge explosion in Gaza City, apparently from an air raid, a
military spokesman said Israel had responded to Hamas rocket fire by
launching air strikes at "terror sites" across the Gaza Strip.
"We will continue to strike Hamas, its infrastructure, its
operatives, and restore security for the State of Israel,"
Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement.
An Israeli government official said Israel would not negotiate with
Palestinians about renewing the truce in Gaza as long as militants
continued to launch rockets.
Heavy civilian casualties and destruction during Israel's campaign
against militants in packed residential areas of the Gaza Strip have
raised international alarm over the past month, but efforts to
extend a ceasefire at talks in Cairo failed.
Israel had earlier said it was ready to agree to an extension as
Egyptian go-betweens pursued negotiations with Israeli and
Palestinian delegates.
Hamas said Palestinian factions had not agreed to extend the truce,
but would continue negotiations in Cairo.
An Islamic Jihad official added: "Discussions in Cairo have not
finished and we will pursue our efforts to stop the aggression and
achieve the just demands of our people."
The Palestinians had wanted Israel to agree in principle to demands
which include a lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip, the
release of prisoners and the opening of a sea port.
The armed wing of Hamas released a statement late on Thursday
warning Palestinian negotiators not to agree to an extension unless
Israel offered concessions.
NAVAL BLOCKADE
Israel has shown little interest in easing its naval blockade of
Gaza and controls on overland traffic and airspace, suspecting Hamas
could restock with weapons from abroad.
Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, speaking on Army
Radio, raised the prospect of Israel relaunching a ground operation
it halted on Tuesday and "taking control of the Gaza Strip in order
to topple the Hamas regime".
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown little inclination
to do so.
In Gaza, some families who had returned to their homes in the
northern town of Beit Hanoun during the ceasefire gathered their
belongings and headed back to the United Nations shelters where they
had sought refuge over the past few weeks.
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Beit Hanoun resident Yamen Mahmoud, a 35-year-old father of four,
said: "Today I am fleeing again, back to displacement. I am not
against resistance but we need to know what to do. Is it war or
peace?" Gaza officials say the war has killed 1,876 Palestinians,
most of them civilians. Hamas said on Thursday it had executed an
unspecified number of Palestinians as Israeli spies.
Israel says 64 of its soldiers and three civilians have died in the
fighting that began on July 8, after a surge in Palestinian rocket
salvoes into Israel.
It expanded its air and naval bombardment of the Gaza Strip into a
ground offensive on July 17, and pulled its infantry and armor out
of the enclave on Tuesday after saying it had destroyed more than 30
infiltration tunnels dug by militants.
ALIENATE EGYPT
Hamas's refusal to extend the ceasefire could further alienate
Egypt, whose government has been hostile to the group and which
ultimately controls Gaza's main gateway to the world, the Rafah
border crossing.
The announcement that the truce would not be extended came a few
minutes after it expired at 0500 GMT (1 a.m. EDT) after lengthy
talks that continued in Cairo through the night.
Palestinian negotiators from factions including Hamas, Islamic Jihad
and Fatah left their luxury hotel for talks with Egyptian
intelligence at 9.30 p.m. on Thursday, returning more than six and a
half hours later looking subdued and saying no deal had yet been
reached.
Palestinian officials paced the lobby, speaking on their phones and
holding meetings, trying to reach a final decision as the deadline
approached.
A source at Cairo airport said the Israeli delegation left shortly
before the truce expired. He said the Israeli visit had lasted nine
hours, longer than the previous two visits this week, as Egyptian
mediators pushed the two sides to renew the truce. There was no
immediate comment from Egypt.
(Additional reporting by Stephen Kalin and Maggie Fick in Cairo, and
Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem; Writing by Giles Elgood in
Jerusalem; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Janet Lawrence)
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