Israel reopens Gaza crossings as truce with Palestinians holds

With a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinians holding after nearly three days of violence, Gaza’s sole power plant resumed operations on Monday and Israel began reopening crossings into the territory.

Israel also lifted security restrictions on southern Israeli communities after the Egyptian-mediated truce took effect late on Sunday.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the truce and thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi for Cairo's role in brokering it. The US president also said he supports an investigation into reports of civilian casualties.

"My administration supports a timely and thorough investigation into all of these reports, and we also call on all parties to fully implement the ceasefire, and to ensure fuel and humanitarian supplies are flowing into Gaza as the fighting subsides," Biden said in a statement.

In a separate development, Honduras is considering moving its embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv, a year after moving it to Jerusalem, according to the Honduran foreign ministry.

Former president Juan Orlando Hernandez moved Honduras's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in 2021.

"The issue of moving the embassy to Tel Aviv has already been discussed with President (Xiomara Castro) and is a topic of interest to her, as well as maintaining a balanced relationship with the other Arab countries and Israel," Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reina said in a statement.

War-weary people in Gaza and Israel were left to pick up the pieces after another round of violence — the worst since an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas last year.

Over three days of fighting, 44 Palestinians were killed, including 15 children and four women, and 311 were wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Twelve of those killed were Islamic Jihad members, one was from a smaller armed group, and two were Hamas-affiliated policemen who were not taking part in the fighting, according to the armed factions.

Israel estimated a total of 47 Palestinians were killed. No Israelis were killed or seriously wounded in the fighting.

The violence had threatened to spiral into another all-out war but was contained because Hamas stayed on the sidelines, possibly because it fears Israeli reprisals and an unraveling of economic understandings with Israel, including the issuing of Israeli work permits that provide a vital source of income for thousands of Gaza residents.

Israel and Hamas have fought four wars since the group overran the territory in 2007. The clashes have exacted a staggering toll on the impoverished territory’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents.

The latest violence may have bolstered the political fortunes of Israel’s caretaker prime minister, Yair Lapid, who lacked experience leading military operations. He unleashed the offensive less than three months before a general election in which he is campaigning to keep the job.

Israel began to reopen crossings into Gaza for humanitarian needs and said it would fully open them if calm continued. Fuel trucks were seen entering the main cargo crossing and heading for the power plant, which shut down on Saturday after Israel closed the crossings.

That added to the misery at the height of the summer heat in the territory, which is under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade and suffers from a chronic power crisis that leaves residents with only a few hours of electricity a day.

In the West Bank on Monday, Israeli troops demolished the homes of two Palestinians suspected of carrying out a deadly attack against Israelis in the city of Elad in May. The soldiers faced a violent protest during the operation, the military said.

The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Monday on the latest round of fighting.

"We underscore our commitment to do all we can towards ending the ongoing escalation, ensuring the safety and security of the civilian population, and following up on the Palestinian prisoners file,” the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, said in a statement.

China, which holds the presidency of the Security Council in August, announced the emergency meeting on Saturday, with Ambassador Zhang Jun expressing his concern over Gaza's worst fighting since an 11-day war last year.

Ahead of the meeting, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan called Monday for the council to place "full accountability" on Islamic Jihad, accusing the Iran-backed group of using Gazans as "human shields.

"There must be one outcome and one outcome only, to condemn the (Islamic Jihad) for its double war crimes while placing the full accountability ... for the murder of innocent Palestinians on the shoulder of the radical terror group," he said at a press briefing.

"They fire rockets at Israeli civilians while using Gazans as human shields. This is a double war crime," he said

Agencies