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Israeli soldiers drive a mobile artillery unit as the sun sets over the central Gaza Strip - Source: Reuters -
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Israel ceased fire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after declaring
victory in its three-week offensive but Hamas guerrillas said the
war that has cost 1,200 Palestinian lives would go on.
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak invited European leaders to a
hastily-called summit to try to bolster the unilateral truce
although Israel had sidestepped Cairo's efforts to achieve a
negotiated end to the hostilities with Hamas.
The racket of explosions and gunfire of the past 22 days went
silent in Hamas-ruled Gaza after the Israeli ceasefire went into
effect at 2 a.m. (0000 GMT).
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a televised address on
Saturday that Hamas had been "badly beaten" in the offensive,
launched before a February election to end Hamas rocket attacks on
southern Israel that were undermining support for the governing
coalition.
"Conditions have been created whereby the goals set at the launch
of the operation have been more than fully achieved," Olmert
said.
Gaza's Islamist rulers said they would keep firing rockets at
Israel until it withdrew its troops and ended its trade blockade on
the coastal enclave.
"These constitute acts of war so this won't mean an end to
resistance," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.
But there were no reports of rockets fired at Israel in the hours
after the ceasefire began, though several were launched shortly
after Olmert's announcement.
Olmert said Israel's troops would remain in place and hit back if
the Palestinians tried to fight on.
"If our enemies decide the blows they've been dealt are not
sufficient and they are interested in continuing the fight, Israel
will be prepared for such and feel free to continue to react with
force."
Short-notice summit
Mubarak invited European leaders to a short-notice summit on Sunday
to find ways to bolster the truce and ease the plight of civilians
crammed into the 45-km (28-mile) sliver of Gaza coast.
Mubarak will host Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and UN chief
Ban Ki-moon in Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday, along with the leaders of
France, Britain, Germany, Turkey, Italy and Spain.
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.
UN Secretary General Ban welcomed the Israeli ceasefire but also
urged it 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 W. 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.
Israel launched air strikes on the Gaza Strip on Dec. 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.
Without an accord with Hamas, diplomats said they feared Israel
would let only a trickle of goods into Gaza, hampering
reconstruction and creating more hardship for its people.
"So long as there is no agreement on the crossings, I frankly
cannot see the end to the hostilities," said Shlomo Ben-Ami, who
was Israel's left-leaning Labour foreign minister when peace talks
with the Palestinians collapsed in 2001.
The road ahead for the Obama administration in promoting a peace
settlement that has eluded Israelis and Palestinians for the 60
years since Israel was established remains bumpy.
Hamas, which won a parliamentary election in 2006 and seized Gaza
from Abbas's forces a year later, is shunned by the West but
remains a popular force in both Gaza and the West Bank.
It is unclear what effect this month's war will have on the
division between the Palestinians factions. Without an end to the
bitter rift between Hamas and Abbas, a deal with Israel on
establishing a Palestinian state still seems distant to
many.
Many in Gaza desperate
After the deaths of perhaps more than 700 civilians in the Israeli
offensive, many of Gaza's 1.5 million people are desperate for a
respite.
Most of those, their nerves shredded and sleepless with fear and
bereavement, just want the war to be over.
"We do not care how, we want a ceasefire. We want to go back to our
homes. Our children need to go back to sleep in their beds," said
Ali Hassan, 34 and a father of five, in Gaza city.
Figures from an independent Palestinian human rights group put the
number of civilians killed in three weeks of aerial bombardment and
a two-week-long ground offensive backed by tanks and artillery at
over 700. Hundreds of fighters have also died.
Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed.
Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said some 5,300 wounded had been
treated, many at chaotic, sanctions-hit hospitals. It put the
death toll to Saturday at 1,206, including 410 children.
Of these, two young boys were killed early on Saturday at a United
Nations-run school where hundreds of people had taken refuge. UN
officials called for war crimes inquiries.
Israel accuses Hamas fighters of hiding among civilians and says
its troops do all they can to avoid hitting non-combatants in a
territory where half the population is aged under 18.
Olmert said he apologised for the suffering of the innocent, and
Israel announced plans to open a clinic Sunday at the Erez Crossing
with Gaza to treat the wounded.
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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.