A limited cease-fire in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Israel announced a limited cease-fire in Gaza Monday, a seven-hour unilateral break in hostilities confined only to areas in which it is not engaged in military activity.

The city of Rafah, is Gaza's only urban area in which battles between the Israel Defense Force and the military wing of Hamas continue. Most of the Israeli forces in Gaza pulled back to staging areas near the border or back into Israel.

Minutes after the cease-fire went into effect, and Israeli aerial assault struck a residence in Gaza City's Shafti refugee camp, killing a child and injuring 29 people, although one Israeli official contended it occurred just before the pause. The attack came the day after a strike on a United Nations school, roundly criticized by the United Nations and the United States, killed ten people, including three Islamic Jihad members on motorcycles, its intended targets.

Israeli military spokesman Gen. Motti Almoz, told Israel's Army Radio that "redeployment (of troops during the cease-fire) lets us work on the tunnels, provides defense and lets the forces set up for further activity. There is no ending here, perhaps an interim phase."

Hamas announced it would not collaborate on the cease-fire, spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri calling it "an attempt to divert attention from Israeli massacres."

The short cease-fire and the re-arrangement of Israeli troops in Gaza suggests Israel intends no further cease-fire negotiations with Hamas or with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and intends to wait and see if armed groups in Gaza will cease its shelling of Israel.