GAZA: Palestinians rushed to shops and banks on Thursday during a five-hour humanitarian ceasefire that largely held, and an Israeli official said Egypt had proposed a permanent truce that would start on Friday.

But there was uncertainty about prospects for a full cessation of violence after the temporary truce lapsed.

The official said senior Israeli negotiators in Cairo had approved a full truce to end 10 days of warfare but a final decision lay with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he had spoken to Netanyahu and added: “We are not familiar with the matter”.

A spokesman for the Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza denied initial comments by the Israeli official that a full ceasefire was slated to start at 6am (0300 GMT) on Friday.

Sirens sounded in southern Israel at 3pm (1200 GMT), at the end of the five-hour ceasefire, and the military alleged that a rocket had been fired at the cities of Ashkelon and Beersheba.

During Thursday’s period of relative calm, the Israeli military alleged that three mortar bombs were launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip, landing in open areas.

Israeli forces, the military added, fired mortar rounds into the Palestinian territory during the truce period after a soldier was slightly wounded by a blast near the frontier.

Hours before the humanitarian ceasefire began, about a dozen Palestinian fighters reportedly tunnelled under the border, emerging near an Israeli community. At least one was killed when Israeli aircraft bombed the group, the military said.

The break in 10 days of fighting was requested by the United Nations to allow residents of the tiny, densely populated and impoverished Gaza Strip to gather supplies and repair damage to infrastructure such as water mains and power lines.

Gaza health officials say at least 224 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed. In Israel, one civilian has been killed by fire from Gaza, where the Israeli military claims more than 1,300 rockets have been launched into the Jewish state.

Israel’s military, which government officials said was poised to expand its air and naval bombardments into possible ground operations, had said it would respond “firmly and decisively” if militants launched attacks during the truce.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2014