Gazans flocked to shops and banks and surged into devastated neighborhoods cut off until now by fighting as a temporary 12-hour pause in fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants took hold Saturday morning in the battered Gaza Strip.
The thud of heavy explosions continued right up until the 8 a.m. start time for the lull. About an hour into the pause in fighting, the crackle of gunfire could be heard and drones circled overhead, but the short-term limited cease-fire appeared to be largely holding.
The two sides had agreed to the hiatus at the urging of U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry and other mediators, although an attempt to forge a weeklong halt to the fighting fell short. Kerry was holding meetings in Paris on Saturday with officials including European Union policy chief Catherine Ashton and envoys from elsewhere in the region.
With the offensive in its 19th day, Palestinian health officials said the overall death toll in Gaza reached 883 in the hours before the lull began, the majority of them civilians. Unrest also roiled the West Bank overnight, with at least nine Palestinians reported dead in clashes that erupted Thursday evening.
The deaths of two more Israeli soldiers were announced overnight, bringing the Israeli military toll to 37. Three civilians have died on the Israeli side since the offensive began on July 8.
Promptly at 8 a.m., people hurried into Gaza's ruined district of Shajaiya, which had been largely inaccessible due to airstrikes that largely leveled the neighborhood nearly a week ago. Israeli forces had targeted the area to root out infiltration tunnels dug by Hamas militants, but scores of families were caught up in bombardment and street battles.
In Shajaiya on Saturday morning, Red Crescent ambulances searched for bodies inside homes pocked by bullets. Twisted metal and furniture littered the streets. The smell of decaying bodies hung in the air.
Mohammed Harara, 35, was among those hurrying down a rubble-strewn street, stopping at a modest three-story concrete-block house. All its windows were blown out, and the structure was badly damaged, with the bottom floor and its contents blown into the street. Harara cursed, then went inside to see what could be salvaged. Incredibly, some tiny yellow chicks emerged peeping from the debris.
In a knocked-down wardrobe, Harara found a laundry basket still filled with clean clothes, which he planned to gather, but did not know where to take them. His wife and children were sheltering with various relatives, he said.
"There's no such thing as a truce – it's just lies," he said. "I don't know where to go. No one does."
Staff writer Zavis reported from Gaza City and special correspondent Sobelman from Jerusalem.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles TimesAnda sedang membaca artikel tentang
12-hour truce brings an edgy calm to Gaza
Dengan url
http://usiamudahan.blogspot.com/2014/07/12-hour-truce-brings-edgy-calm-to-gaza.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
12-hour truce brings an edgy calm to Gaza
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
12-hour truce brings an edgy calm to Gaza
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar