Americas

Americas

U.S. welcomes Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire

14 March 2012 04:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. State Department on Tuesday welcomed the newly-reached ceasefire deal between the Israelis and the militants in Gaza strip, following four days of violence that has claimed dozens of Palestinian lives, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"There are reports that the Egyptians have been able to negotiate some calm. If, in fact, that’s the case, that would, of course, be very welcome," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a briefing.

Calm in Gaza was breached Friday when the Israeli air forces launched an air strike and killed the leader of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), Zuhair al-Qaisi.

The attack ignited rocket fire from Gaza militants and in return, Israeli forces carried out 37 airstrikes on various targets in Gaza. The four days of cross-border violence left 25 Palestinians killed, and over 70 injured. Around 18 people in Israel were also injured, including some Thai workers.

Earlier Tuesday, an official from Hamas, which controls Gaza, told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that a Egypt-brokered ceasefire was reached between Israel and Palestinian militant groups, adding that the truce went into effect at 1 a.m. Tuesday local time (2300 GMT Monday).

At the briefing, Nuland also noted that a "more formal meeting" involving top officials from the Palestinian authority, Israel and the Middle East quartet, could take place "some time in April."

The Middle East Quartet, consisting of the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations, has been pushing the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table, but no tangible progress has been achieved so far.