MOSCOW, August 4 (RIA Novosti) – Hamas has warned Palestinians to be extremely wary of the seven-hour ceasefire announced by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday, Al Jazeera reported.
“Israel’s so called humanitarian ceasefire is unilateral and it comes in a time when the Zionist enemy wants to distract the world from the massacres they have committed against our people in Gaza. We don’t trust their intentions and we ask our people to take extreme caution," Al Jazeera quoted Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri as saying.
Late Sunday night IDF decided to introduce a seven-hour ceasefire in most of the districts of the Gaza Strip. The humanitarian pause is expected to last from 10:00 a.m. (07:00 GMT) and 05:00 p.m. (14:00 GMT) on Monday. The ceasefire will be in force in the entire territory of the Palestinian enclave, except for the districts east of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
Earlier on Sunday, at least 10 Palestinians were killed in a shelling outside a UN-run school in Rafa.
Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on July 8 to put an end to rocket fire from Gaza. On July 17, the Israeli Army switched to a ground assault largely aimed at locating and destroying Hamas’ rocket launchers and underground tunnels.
The operation has claimed more than 1,700 Palestinian lives, most of those civilians, and injured a further 9,000. Sixty-seven Israelis have died in the conflict.
