Israeli officials say Hamas is quietly asking for a return of the humanitarian ceasefire.
Israel resumed strikes on Hamas targets Sunday morning after Hamas refused to abide by a UN-requested ceasefire and launched several volleys of rockets at Israeli towns.
Within two hours of Israel’s resumption of strikes, Hamas officials are now asking the UN’s peace envoy Robert Serry to arrange a renewal of the ceasefire.
If true, the report indicates Hamas has given up its previous demand that no ceasefire would go into effect unless Israel withdrew is ground troops from Gaza and stopped the destruction of Hamas’s tunnels.
According to Channel 2’s Ehud Ya’ari, Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal was surprised Friday at the Israeli cabinet’s unanimous rejection of the ceasefire proposal raised by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Hamas believed Kerry’s proposal, which offered Hamas its key demand of easing the Israeli-Egyptian economic blockade of the Strip, would rescue it from the relentless pressure of the unified Israeli-Egyptian front.
Such a ceasefire extension won’t take effect until Hamas makes the request publicly, Israeli officials say.
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