Palestinians Say Israel Quickly Violates New Truce

In Jerusalem, attacker drives construction vehicle into bus
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2014 7:20 AM CDT
Updated Aug 4, 2014 7:38 AM CDT
Palestinians Say Israel Quickly Violates New Truce
Palestinians walk through rubble of destroyed homes in Rafah on Monday.   (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

It's another day of familiar violence in Gaza and Israel: After taking heavy criticism from the US and UN over another shelling of a UN school in Gaza yesterday, Israel put a seven-hour humanitarian truce into place today, reports the Guardian. Palestinians, however, accused Israel of breaking it less than an hour after it began with a bomb attack on a refugee camp, reports Reuters. A spokesperson for the Israeli military was checking into the report. Israel had exempted the area around Rafah, but this strike occurred elsewhere, killing an 8-year-old girl and wounding about 20, say Palestinians. Other developments:

  • Bus attack: Israeli police say an attacker drove a construction excavator into a bus in Jerusalem today and overturned the vehicle, reports the AP. Several people were reportedly injured, at least one seriously, and the attacker was shot and killed by police. Israel called it a terrorist attack.
  • School strike under scrutiny: A New York Times investigation of an Israeli strike at a UN school in Jabaliya on Wednesday suggests that Israel used heavy artillery "inappropriate for urban areas." The strike killed 21 people who were sheltering at the school, and the Times says Israel has offered no evidence that Hamas militants were operating in the vicinity as a justification for the attack.
  • No end in sight: Israel has announced a scaling back of ground operations, leading to speculation that the entire military operation might be winding down. "But it is by no means clear that an end to the fighting is in sight," writes Bethany Bell at the BBC. "The offensive around Rafah, near the Egyptian border, continues, possibly to try and make it harder for Hamas to re-arm in future. And the army may be searching for more cross border tunnels that it has not yet identified."
(More Israel and Palestinians stories.)

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