Israel says Hamas fires three mortars during humanitarian cease-fire window

Israel's military said Hamas had fired three mortars into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip during a five-hour humanitarian cease-fire window Thursday.
The Israeli Defense Forces tweeted that the mortars hit the community of Eshkol. There was no immediate word of any injuries or damage. Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfield had earlier told the Associated Press that two rockets fell in open areas in southern Israel, causing no damage or injuries. Rosenfield said the rockets landed at 12 p.m. local time (5 a.m. Eastern Time), two hours after the cease-fire began.
It was not immediately clear whether the Israeli military would respond. 
Shortly before the cease-fire took effect, Israel said it had thwarted an attempted attack by 13 Islamic militants. Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told The Associated Press that the would-be attackers attempted to sneak into Israel through a tunnel. They were spotted at the tunnel's opening approximately 820 feet inside Israel, near a kibbutz, and were struck by Israeli aircraft. Lerner said the military believed at least one militant was killed in the strike and that the remaining fighters appeared to have returned to Gaza through the tunnel.
Lerner said the attack "could have had devastating consequences" and said the militants were armed with "extensive weapons," including rocket-propelled grenades.
The attack was preceded by a volley of 15 rockets fired from Gaza into central Israel. The Times of Israel reported that IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz told Israeli television Channel 2 that the rockets were meant to be "an envelope for this attack."
"We knew this would come," Almoz said. "We knew specifically about this tunnel. We knew Hamas would try [to launch a terror attack] in any way it can."
Neither Hamas nor other Palestinian militant groups immediately claimed the attack. Lerner said that the incursion had not affected Israel's plan to support the truce. However, Almoz told The Times of Israel that the Israeli Defense Forces would not hesitate to launch new attacks to prevent rocket fire by Hamas, adding that the five-hour period was a "humanitarian window" to help "the population trapped in Gaza under a regime that uses it as hostages."
In the lead-up to the start of the temporary cease-fire at 10 a.m. local time (3 a.m. Eastern Time), Israeli aircraft struck 37 targets in Gaza early Thursday, including homes of two Hamas leaders, Fathi Hamad and Khalil al-Haya, according to the military.
The cease-fire had been requested by the United Nations so that emergency supplies, including food and water could be delivered into Gaza. 
The cross-border fighting has so far killed more than 220 Palestinians and an Israeli, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Egypt has meanwhile resumed efforts to broker a longer-term truce after its initial plan was rejected by Hamas earlier in the week. Hamas, which seized Gaza seven years ago, wants international guarantees that the territory's blockade by Israel and Egypt will be eased significantly and that Israel will release Palestinian prisoners.
An Egyptian newspaper reporting on the cease-fire negotiations claimed that Israel had refused to consider a Hamas demand that Gaza residents be allowed access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, considered Islam's third-holiest site. Another reported sticking point was Hamas' demand for the release of six prisoners initially freed by Israel as part of an exchange for a captured IDF soldier, but later re-arrested in the West Bank.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.