Israel began observing a unilateral cease-fire at 10:00 am Monday, following a late-night decision by the Security Cabinet and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
The seven-hour truce will last until 7:00 pm Monday, and excludes the Rafah area, where ongoing clashes have raged since Friday.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (COGAT), General Yoav Mordechai, announced earlier that Israel will hold its fire in most of Gaza for a seven-hour “humanitarian window” on Monday.
Mordehai also warned that “if the truce will be violated, the army will respond with fire toward the source of the fire” – which Hamas has categorically rejected in any event.
Hamas has taken advantage of past temporary ceasefires to continue to fire rockets at Israeli citizens.
On Friday, the group violated a 72-hour ceasefire shortly after it went into effect, killing two IDF soldiers and kidnapping a third, Hadar Goldin, who was declared dead by the IDF on Saturday night.
Leave a Reply