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Trails of smoke are seen after the launch of rockets from the northern Gaza Strip towards Israel - Source: Reuters -
Related
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched rockets into
southern Israel on Sunday in defiance of the unilateral ceasefire
that Israel declared hours earlier and which Hamas said it would
ignore.
"At least five rockets were launched and four hit in open areas
near (the Israeli town of) Sderot," an Israeli military spokesman
said, later announcing that aircraft attacked the site where the
salvoes were fired.
Israel halted its 22-day-old Gaza offensive at 2 a.m. (0000 GMT),
saying it had achieved all its objectives but that a troop
withdrawal was contingent on Hamas ceasing its fire
completely.
The deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians and deepening
hardship in the Gaza Strip brought strong international pressure on
Israel to stop its deadliest military campaign in the territory in
decades.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cited internationally backed
understandings with Egypt, Gaza's southern neighbour, on preventing
Hamas from rearming through smuggling tunnels as a reason behind
Israel's decision to call off its attacks.
But left unsettled was an issue at the heart of the conflict -
Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip - and Hamas, though hit hard by
the offensive, remained the de facto force within the coastal
enclave.
Summit
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak invited European leaders to a
hastily called summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on
Sunday to try to bolster the unilateral truce although Israel had
sidestepped Cairo's efforts to achieve a negotiated end to the
hostilities with Hamas.
Hours after the ceasefire began, Israeli soldiers moved out of the
northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, an area militants have used as a
launching ground for cross-border rocket attacks.
Residents who had left during the fighting returned to survey the
rubble of their homes. Children picked through the debris to
uncover school bags and torn books.
"Thank God, you are alive," one man told a neighbour. "The
house can be rebuilt, God willing."
A column of Israeli tanks and soldiers, some holding Israeli
flags, withdrew from the Gaza Strip for what the army called "rest
and relaxation".
But several of the tanks established a position 100 metres
(yards) on the Gaza side of the border w
hile others remained deployed on the eastern edge of the city of
Gaza and north of Beit Lahiya, local residents said.
Hamas, in a message blared from a loudspeaker in a Gaza mosque,
said: "The Hamas movement congratulates our people at this victory
achieved by our people and their resistance, foremost the Qassam
Brigades which forced the occupation forces to
withdraw."
Resistance
Hamas said it would not accept the presence of Israeli troops in
the Gaza Strip and would "continue to resist them". Israeli leaders
said the military would respond strongly if Hamas kept up
attacks.
The Islamic Jihad movement said, "The fighting will continue as
long as one soldier or a single tank remains on our beloved
land."
In the first reported violence after the ceasefire went into
effect, Hamas militants shot at Israeli troops near Jabalya refugee
camp, an Israeli military spokesman said.
"(Israeli forces) returned fire from the ground and the air and
they saw that gunmen were hit. There were no casualties among the
troops," the spokesman said.
Hamas sources said there had been a brief clash with Israeli troops
pulling out of Jabalya.
Israel launched air strikes on the Gaza Strip on December 27 and
ground troops pushed into the enclave a week later, saying its main
aim was an end to the rocket fire that had killed 18 people in
Israel over the previous eight years.
Israeli attacks killed more than 1,200 Palestinians, and some 700
civilians during the offensive, Gaza medical officials said. Israel
said hundreds of gunmen were among the dead. Ten Israeli soldiers
and three civilians hit by rockets were killed.
Without an accord with Hamas, diplomats said they feared Israel
would let only a trickle of goods into rubble-strewn Gaza,
hampering reconstruction and creating more hardship for its
people.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed the ceasefire but also
urged Israel to pull out its forces from Gaza rapidly.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had spoken up for what
Israel saw as its right to self-defence despite the civilian
casualties, said she hoped for a durable ceasefire and a long-term
settlement for the problems of Gaza.
Rice and President George Bush are stepping down and many analysts
believe Israel, eager for smooth relations from the outset with the
new president, has been keen to end the fighting before Barack
Obama takes over the White House on Tuesday.
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Add a Comment:
Post new commentfarhatmirza said on 2009-01-21 @ 09:43 NZDT: Report abusive post
Dear Sir/Madam, If and when the information is declassified, it may come out that the connection between 'shoe-treatment' of G.Bush in Iraq and, the carnage if not the genocide that followed in Ghaza, was not, after all, the figment of ones imagination. Regards, fjm
sheildzee said on 2009-01-20 @ 19:34 NZDT: Report abusive post
Please report accurately. Hamas did not "seize control of Gaza from Abbas's Fatah forces in 2007 ...". You rightly state that Hamas won the general election so Hamas did not "seize" anything. Your point about Fatah is superfluous anyway so just stick to the facts - " Hamas was elected by the Palestinian people in democratic elections held in 2006." That is the truth. The power struggle that followed the democratic election of Hama is another issue entirely.
flyer said on 2009-01-19 @ 16:50 NZDT: Report abusive post
Whew, a ceasefire of sorts - obviously the protest of the southland cafe owner against Israeli women has brought everyone to the negotiating table - AS IF.....
farhatmirza said on 2009-01-19 @ 11:42 NZDT: Report abusive post
Dear Sir/Madam, To say that Israel funded Hamas looks improbable, if not ridiculous. However, I won't be surprised if Hamas took a cue of two from Hagana, Irgun, or Lehi. Regards, fjm
philipmcc said on 2009-01-19 @ 10:01 NZDT: Report abusive post
I feel sad enough about the Gaza protagonists each claiming that they are the 'good guys' and the others are the 'bad guys', and the suffering that creates. But as I read these comments I see the same human tendency being acted out. So many claim that their view is 'right' and the others are 'wrong'. This stance is a major factor in all conflict. While that fear-based tendency persists we will go on having wars like Gaza.