Israel Ceases Contacts With Gaza Conflict Mediators Over Recent Attacks - Reports

The Israeli authorities have decided to cease contacts with coordinators for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process amid recent Palestinian militant shelling of the Israeli southern territories, local media reported.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2018) The Israeli authorities have decided to cease contacts with coordinators for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process amid recent Palestinian militant shelling of the Israeli southern territories, local media reported.

On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said that it had detected about 300 missile launches by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, intercepting dozens of them. In response to the Palestinian shelling, the Israeli military attacked over 70 militant targets in the Gaza Strip from the ground and the air.

"Israel has decided to cease contacts with UN envoy [UN special coordinator for the middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov] and with Egyptians concerning the ceasefire due to continuing rocket attacks," Israeli tv channel Kan 11 posted on Twitter.

Israeli TV channel Reshet specified that the Israeli authorities had informed the Hamas movement that it was currently time "not for talks but for offensive operations."

However, an anonymous source told Reshet that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not been promoting "neither a military operation, nor a large-scale confrontation" during the Israeli�State Security Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday morning.

�The relations between the Israelis and the Palestinians near the Gaza border have been increasingly tense since 2005. The Gaza Strip is one of the two parts of the partially recognized State of Palestine, which until 2005 was Israeli territory. Palestinian protesters continue regular clashes with the Israeli troops on the border, while the Israeli side accuses Gaza of ongoing shelling.