Hamas rejects to extend ceasefire for extra four hours

Gaza, July 27: The Islamic Hamas movement said Saturday night that it has rejected Israel's four-hour extension proposal to the just ended UN-brokered 12-hour humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas and the Palestinian factions didn't agree on extending the humanitarian ceasefire for another four hours, Xinhua quoted Hamas spokesperon Sami Abu Zuhri as saying in a statement.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a top Hamas leader in Gaza, said that any international initiative concerning the aggression on Gaza "must bear in mind our people's sacrifices and the distinct ability of our armed resistance".

Earlier on Saturday, unknown militants fired four rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel shortly after the end of the half-day humanitarian ceasefire late Saturday, witnesses said.

Israeli Radio reported that the four rockets fired from Gaza landed on southern area of Ashkol, no injures were reported.

No one claimed responsibility for firing the first four rockets. However, witnesses said they saw the smoke of the rockets after being launched into Israel.

The temporary ceasefire was proposed in a bid to enable medical rescue teams and paramedics to pullout more bodies from under the rubbles in southern Gaza.

Meanwhile, Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesperson of health ministry in Gaza, told reporters that rescue teams Saturday pulled out 130 bodies from under the rubble of flattened houses in Gaza.

He added that within the last 19 days of the Israeli offensive on the coastal enclave, about 1,030 Palestinians were killed and more than 6,000 others injured.

IANS