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Report: U.S.-Israeli Misunderstanding Led to Breakdown of Gaza Truce
(Jerusalem Post) A diplomatic miscommunication between Israel and the U.S. may have led to the breakdown of an Aug. 1 cease-fire between Israel and Hamas during the Gaza war, Israel Army Radio reported Tuesday. According to the report, the Americans mistakenly led Israel to believe that Hamas accepted an unconditional 72-hour cease-fire when in fact the Palestinian Islamist group never gave its consent to refrain from attacking Israeli troops on the ground in Gaza. Ninety minutes into the cease-fire, two IDF infantrymen were killed by Hamas operatives in an ambush near Rafah as they were searching for underground tunnels. In the attack, Hamas terrorists ran off with the body of 2nd-Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was later declared killed in action. In the subsequent chain of events, heavy artillery fire was reported in the Rafah area, resulting in dozens of Palestinian casualties. Israeli officials confirmed that in retrospect Hamas never committed not to act against IDF troops in Gaza, even though Washington led the Israeli government to believe that Hamas did in fact promise to do just that. "We demanded two things from the Americans," said a diplomatic source in Jerusalem. "We wanted a cease-fire, and we wanted complete freedom of operation against the tunnels, without the threat of coming under fire from Hamas....We demanded it in writing, that Hamas accepts these conditions." Secretary of State Kerry broke the news of the three-day, unconditional truce. A UN spokesperson also confirmed that as part of the cease-fire, IDF troops would be permitted to remain in place, where they would have a free hand to ferret out more tunnels.