JERUSALEM — A truce between Israel and Hamas went into effect this morning, hours after the two sides launched attacks that highlighted the difficulties they face in holding the cease-fire together.
After a year of violence that has killed more than 400 Palestinians and seven Israelis, leaders of both sides expressed hope the truce that went into effect at 6 a.m. local time would succeed — but made clear they have little faith in their adversaries’ commitment to the deal.
“I hope it will succeed. I believe there will be quiet in (Israel’s) south,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday in a speech to philanthropists. But he said he instructed his military “to prepare for any operation, short or long, that might be necessary” if the truce breaks down as several previous ones have.
In another diplomatic initiative, Israel called on neighboring Lebanon to open peace negotiations — an overture that was quickly rejected by Lebanon’s prime minister.
In Gaza, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said the truce would ease the lives of Gazans, but success or failure was in Israel’s hands.
The truce deal between Israel and Hamas was reached after months of efforts by Egypt and could avert a large-scale Israeli military incursion.
But on Wednesday, violence was still in evidence and a truce seemed remote. The military said at least 40 rockets and 10 mortar shells exploded in Israel by nightfall, an especially high one-day total.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for much of the rocket fire, saying it was to avenge Israeli airstrikes that killed 10 militants in the previous two days. Israel hit back with two more airstrikes, wounding two Palestinians, according to Hamas security officials.
Israel’s call on Lebanon to open peace talks came after the second round of indirect talks between Israel and Syria in Turkey — contacts made public just last month.
But Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora rejected Israel’s call.
“Lebanon’s known position before this government is that there is no place for bilateral negotiations between Lebanon and Israel,” Siniora’s media office said in a statement late Wednesday.
