Israeli media reports said Monday that ‘new rules of the game’, have put restraint on Israeli army actions against the Gaza Strip, however, there has been no agreement with the ruling Hamas over there.
A senior government official, speaking in a condition of anonymity, was reported as saying that the Israeli army has been ordered not to engage in attacks against the coastal enclave, unless Palestinians fire homemade shells onto adjacent Israeli areas.
The new order was released following the last week’s Israeli deadly attacks on northern Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of more than 100 Palestinians, many of them were civilians, the Israeli official explained.
Last week, Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, told his guest U.S Secretary of States, Condoleezza Rice, that Israel ‘will not attack Gaza, if homemade shells are not fired onto Israel.
Rice urged Cairo to hold more contacts with the ruling Hamas in order to ensure a lull in tension in the region to help advance Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.
Over the past few days, media reports suggested that only three Qassam homemade shells have been fired onto Israel, compared with last week’s dozens of such shells, Palestinians fired as Israeli army was attacking Gaza’s northern parts.
Last month, Hamas expressed readiness to reach a ceasefire (truce) deal with Israel, via a third party, on which Hamas prevents Palestinians from firing homemade shells in return for halt of Israeli army actions on Gaza and West Bank and lift of a nine-month-old Israeli closure of the coastal territory.
