Egypt, UN scramble to restore calm after Gaza flareup

A tentative calm settled in and around the Gaza Strip on Wednesday afternoon, hours after a rocket attack from the territory triggered a string of Israeli airstrikes, sparking fears of war.

According to the Hamas-linked Palestinian Information Center, calm was restored after Egyptian security officials held “intensive communications” with Israel and the Palestinian factions.

The latest exchange began in the predawn hours of Wednesday, when terrorists fired one rocket at the southern city Beersheba and a second landed in the Mediterranean Sea near Tel Aviv, according to the Israel Defense Forces. 

In the hours after the rocket fire, Israeli fighter jets bombed some 20 targets in Gaza, the army said. One Palestinian was killed, apparently while attempting to fire a rocket at Israel, and several were reported wounded.

A group of Egyptian security officials including Ahmed Abdelkhaliq, the official in charge of the Palestinian file in the Egyptian General Intelligence Services, arrived in Gaza on Tuesday. 

Egyptian General Intelligence Services chief Abbas Kamel is expected to also arrive in the coastal enclave on Thursday, where he is slated to meet with Hamas leaders. The meeting was planned before the flareup.

Egypt has played a key role in attempting to broker a multi-year ceasefire between Israel and armed groups in Gaza.

Asked about the Palestinian Information Center report, a Gaza-based Hamas official told The Times of Israel he has “no information about the restoration of calm,” but added the UN and Egypt have been working to achieve that end. 

An IDF spokesperson referred questions to the Prime Minister’s Office, which said it could not comment on the Palestinian Information Center report.

A diplomatic source said that it was “too early” to say if calm had been restored.

The source also confirmed that the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nikolay Mladenov, has been “working with all concerned parties to restore calm.”

#UN and #Egypt efforts to difuse growing tensions continue as latest #Gaza rocket fits pattern of provocations that seeks to bring #Israel and Gaza closer to war https://t.co/EWn8t3EIyt

— Nickolay E. MLADENOV (@nmladenov) October 17, 2018

During a meeting with President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday morning, Mladenov called on all parties to take immediate measures to lower tensions.

“I am afraid that there is no more time for words. Now is the time for action,” Mladenov said. “We must see very clear actions on all sides that bring the situation to a de-escalation. Otherwise, the consequences will be terrible for everyone.” 

The European Union also called for de-escalation and a political solution.

“The cycle of violence and despair has to be broken,” an EU spokesperson said.

Gaza terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Wednesday disavowed the firing of a rocket on Beersheba and another off the Tel Aviv coast, and described the attack as an act of sabotage.

“The resistance wings in the joint command center salute Egyptian efforts to achieve our people’s demands and reject all irresponsible attempts that seek to distort and destroy the Egyptian efforts, including the firing of rockets last night,” the Gaza joint command center said in a statement published on the official website of the Izz ad-Din Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing.

The joint command center includes the armed wings of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other factions.

No group has taken responsibility for Wednesday’s rocket fire, but Israel said it holds Hamas responsible.

“There are only two organizations in Gaza that have this caliber of rocket: Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” said IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus. “It’s not hard to narrow down who’s behind it.”