Gaza truce holds with call to stop violence

AS A tenuous ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip yesterday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh appealed to all Palestinians to prevent a resurgence in the internal violence that has left 36 people dead in recent days.

Much of Gaza was quiet yesterday, though a Hamas gunman was killed in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis — a shooting officials from the Islamic group blamed on militants from rival Fatah.

The relative lull in Gaza violence came just as Israel carried out its first response to a Palestinian suicide bombing, launching an air strike early yesterday on a tunnel dug by Palestinians near the Gaza-Israel border.

Previous truces between Hamas and Fatah militants in the tense Gaza Strip have quickly collapsed, and it appeared unlikely the two sides would comply with all the terms of the agreement, such as handing over all those involved in killings and abductions.

In the past, Hamas and Fatah gunmen used lulls to prepare for more fighting.

But Mr Haniyeh called for a total halt to the violence.

“Either we maintain this calm,” he said, “or everything collapses again, and then everyone will be held responsible.”

Fatah spokesman, Maher Mekdad, said his group would observe the agreement.

The truce came as a two-month cease-fire between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza was badly shaken by a Palestinian suicide bombing. The bomber, a 20-year-old from Gaza, struck the Israeli resort city of Eilat on Sunday, killing three people and himself.