Offers made to the Palestinian delegation in Cairo where negotiations for a truce with Israel are being brokered do not meet the aspirations of the Palestinian people, Hamas's head of foreign affairs, Osama Hamdan, said.
Hamdan said on his official Facebook page on Saturday that "Israel must accept the demands of the Palestinian people or face a long war."
Residents from Gaza City enjoyed some quietness on Saturday (August 16) but for the thousands of displaced created by conflict between Israel and Hamas the respite was only temporary.
Some took advantage of the lull in the fighting to restock food at the market.
"The situation is better during the ceasefire: we can go anywhere. But if they start talking about ending the ceasefire people will start worry again and feel bad," Samir al-Dan said.
The ceasefire was renewed on Thursday (August 14) for five days after a previous truce expired. It has largely halted more than a month of fighting in which 1,945 Palestinians, many of them civilians, 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians in Israel were killed.
In a U.N.-run school sheltering displaced, people were waiting for time to pass by. They remembered the anger, the sadness and the pain of leaving their homes.
"When you are forced to leave your house, you get angry, you feel sad, it's painful. And on top of this, we were attacked by (Israeli) airplanes," Mohammed Hashem said.
According to the United Nations, at least 425,000 displaced people in the Gaza Strip of 1.8 million have been displaced by the war, living in emergency shelters or staying with host families, stoking international alarm.
The U.N. also says early 12,000 homes have been destroyed or severely damaged by Israeli air strikes and heavy shelling.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said 225.831 are sheltering in 81 schools in Gaza.
The war added to Gaza's economic hardship. The jobless number, which stood at 40 percent before the war started in July, has soared with the destruction of businesses. Gaza Chamber of Commerce estimates that 500 businesses have been struck by Israeli bombs and shells since fighting began on July 8.
"It's a bad and tough place to be. There is no electricity, no water and no work on the Gaza strip," lamented Izzat al-Samouni.
The latest ceasefire, mediated by Egypt, gave the parties an additional five days, until late on Monday (August 18) to come up with a comprehensive agreement to end the war in Gaza.
The Palestinians want an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza, an extension of the strip's maritime and security boundaries, the building of a sea port and reopening of an airport in the enclave.
The Israelis want an end to rocket fire from Gaza, the full demilitarization of the territory, and for the Palestinian Authority headed by Western-allied President Mahmoud Abbas to take over responsibility for managing Gaza's 12 km (7.5 mile) border with Egypt at Rafah, an effort to prevent the smuggling of weapons and other military-use equipment.
Negotiations hosted in Cairo were expected to reconvene on Sunday (August 17).
REUTERS