Hamas has accepted a ceasefire which has been offered by Egypt. But israel has not yet accpeted that ceasefire offer. Does any one have knowledge about Egypte's ceasefire offer ?
Not sure of your information source But as we all know it's not that simple This is how CNN see it right now They seem to split the Arab Nations ---------when are they any other! Arab nations split over brokering Gaza truce http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/14/gaza.diplomacy/index.html This issue has split the Arab nations into two camps -- those, like Egypt, who want an end to Hamas' political influence, and others, like Qatar, who are more sympathetic to the organization, which rules Gaza.
I think the Israelis are voting on Saturday whether or not to accept. I just hope both sides accept the cease fire and end the carnage. The real victims are the civilians!
They're not voting on wherever they're accepting a cease fire, because Hamas denied the terms already, they're voting on a one sided retreat from Gaza. Israel managed to destroy a lot of their weaponry, tunnels and really scare the fuck out of the Hamas. Next time they'll know what will happen if they fire rockets. It's a shame though that so many civilians got hurt, hopefully if there's going to be peace soon Gaza will actually become a place where people can live in.
As predicted: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-gaza18-2009jan18,0,2983698.story Cease-fire approved in time for Obama-nation. Showing how this really was just one final use of the Bush administration. They don't want to embarrass Obama with this...peace activists put him in the White House. Thank you Israel and may Peace move forward. This will be the greatest diplomatic effort ever undertaken. May it be successful. Om Shanti Salaam Shalom
Looks like Israel took the high road, but hamas apparently still has more kids to hide behind: http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE50G2U820090117 No surprise. They don't want peace.
hehehe in other words, Israel the 4th or 5th strongest army in the world, despite they bombed everywhere they can in Gaza, from air and ground, wants now a cease fire even before achieving any of the goals they declared, like "remove hamas" "secure southern israel" ..etc which makes us ask, what was the real goal? the real goal is obvious now, the coward IOF wanted to kill as many civilians as possible (mainly women and kids) with the blessings of some nazi rabbis like this one: and his son: "If they don't stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand," said Shmuel Eliyahu. "And if they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don't stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop." source so what problem do they really have with Hitler? he was killing all (even civilians) because of few, and they are doing the same now, but they are too coward to show it of course, they try to achieve it slowly and through provoking wars.
I don't know why some people continue to call Israel cowards ? They don't use suicide bombers. They don't train children to be martyrs. They don't launch scud rockets across the border. I think Israel has been pretty up front about the whole thing. "Here we come and we are shooting everyone, now Stop it, or the next time we won't stop until our soldiers are surfing the coast and your people are walking across desert begging Turkey for a place to stay for a few hundred years." What is cowardly about that ?
A volley of rockets has been fired into southern Israel from Gaza, hours after a unilateral Israeli ceasefire began. At least four out of six rockets landed near the town of Sderot, with no reports of injuries. Israel launched an air strike on Gaza in response. The exchange puts an immediate strain on the ceasefire, which followed three weeks of fighting. Israel says its troops will not pull out for now, but Hamas said it would not accept an Israeli presence in Gaza. Nearly 1,200 Palestinians and 13 Israelis have been killed since Israel launched its offensive against Hamas on 27 December. Shortly before the rockets fell, Israeli troops briefly traded fire with Hamas militants in the north of the Gaza Strip after coming under attack, Israeli military officials said. International leaders are due in Egypt on Sunday for a summit aimed at shoring up the ceasefire. Heads of state from across Europe will join Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and UN chief Ban Ki-moon at Sharm El-Shiekh to give their backing to a permanent peace. The rockets were fired at about 0900 (0700 GMT), Israeli police said. Israeli aircraft struck the militants who launched the rockets from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, the military said. Hours earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the nation that Israel was halting its offensive whose goals "have been more than fully achieved". The stopping of rocket-fire had been a chief aim of the military campaign. In a televised address, Mr Olmert warned militants in Gaza that if they "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". The ceasefire came into effect at 0200. Hamas has rejected the move, saying any continued Israeli presence in Gaza would be regarded as an act of war. "The occupier must halt his fire immediately and withdraw from our land and lift his blockade and open all crossings and we will not accept any one Zionist soldier on our land, regardless of the price that it costs," Hamas spokesman Farzi Barhoum said, shortly before the ceasefire began. Israel has begun withdrawing some of its troops from Gaza, says the BBC's Katya Adler in Jerusalem. But it says others will remain for now and strike back if Israel continues to come under attack. Meanwhile, Palestinian medics have pulled the bodies of 25 people, including several children, from underneath rubble in the Gaza Strip since the start of the ceasefire, AFP news agency reported. The US has welcomed the ceasefire, saying it "expects that all parties will cease attacks and hostile actions immediately". Secretary General Ban expressed relief, saying the ceasefire should be "the first step leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza". Aid organisations have expressed concern that crossings into Gaza will not reopen fully unless Hamas is committed to a ceasefire. BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen says the question now is whether Hamas decides to lick its wounds and regroup - or whether it gambles on dragging Israel into a war of attrition. Hamas representatives have been taking part in talks in Cairo, brokered by President Mubarak, aimed at reaching a bilateral deal. On Saturday, Germany, France and Britain sent identical letters to the Israeli and Egyptian governments offering support for a ceasefire and their help in preventing arms smuggling into Gaza. source
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has announced an immediate ceasefire with Israel in Gaza. A statement read by a Hamas spokesman said the group would hold fire for a week to give Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip. The move came hours after a unilateral Israeli ceasefire came into effect. The cessation of hostilities was earlier cast into doubt by fresh rocket fire into Israel and an Israeli air strike on militants in Gaza. Hamas' deputy chief in Syria, Moussa Abou Marzouk, said the ceasefire was in the name of all "Palestinian resistance factions". "We... announce a ceasefire of our factions in the Gaza Strip and we stress that our demand is the withdrawal of the enemy forces from the Gaza Strip within a week, along with the opening of all the crossings for the entry of humanitarian aid, food and other necessities for our people in the Gaza Strip." Read more
Questions and answers on Gaza's next steps The Associated Press Sunday, January 18, 2009 CAIRO, Egypt: The hard part is still to come. Almost every significant issue between Hamas and Israel remains unresolved despite a unilateral cease-fire by Israel that went into effect before dawn Sunday in Gaza, and Hamas' later announcement that it would halt fighting for one week. Some questions and answers about what remains to be worked out to prevent violence from breaking out anew in the troubled territory. Q: Hamas says it will hold its fire for one week. What happens after that? A: World leaders are scrambling to put together a longer-term deal to keep the peace after that one week. The key issues are how to address Israel's main demand that Hamas not shoot rockets at southern Israel, and Hamas' key requirement that Israel and Egypt allow Gaza's borders to reopen. To meet Israel's demand, mediators must figure out how to stop weapons smuggling into Gaza from Egypt, and thus prevent Hamas from gaining access to rockets. To keep Hamas from resuming rocket attacks, the mediators also must devise a way to monitor the crossings into Gaza acceptable to all sides — so they can reopen and ease Gaza's humanitarian crisis. Both issues have stymied negotiators for more than a year, however, and there is no guarantee of lasting solutions now. Even the smuggling and border issues are just a prelude to the underlying conflict over who controls Gaza — Palestinian moderates or Palestinian militants — and the even trickier long-term puzzle of how to renew broader Mideast peace efforts. Q: What are ideas to stop weapons smuggling? A: International mediators are trying to figure a scheme and incentives to beef up Egypt's patrolling of the border into Gaza, and to put international monitors at the scene. The United States and Israel signed a deal Friday in Washington that calls for expanded cooperation to prevent Hamas from rearming through Egypt. But that deal lacks specifics, merely promising U.S. expert assistance and equipment and monitors of some sort. European countries and Turkey seem willing to help with monitors. But as always, numerous devils lurk in the details: Still unresolved are where those monitors would patrol — either in Gaza, which Hamas does not want or in Egypt, which Egypt does not want. Reaching agreement on that will be tough. It's also unclear who would oversee or command the monitors — a key issue if future disputes arise. Q: Haven't there been past efforts to stop smuggling? A: Yes, and they largely failed. The U.S. allocated $23 million last year to help train Egypt officials and provide high-tech equipment to stop smuggling. The money made barely a dent, with smuggling going strong before Israel began its offensive on Gaza on Dec. 27, partly because of Egypt's inability to rein in corruption and alleviate poverty in the Sinai peninsula. Egypt rattled diplomats this weekend when its foreign minister asserted the country was not bound by the new U.S.-Israeli deal. But many saw his words as just for domestic political consumption and say Egypt does have a strong, new interest in stopping the smuggling. Egypt, however, wants permission to put more Egyptian troops at the border as part of any stepped-up effort — an idea that Israel, in turn, says it can't abide. There is one significant change this time: The United States as part of the Israeli deal also agreed to work with NATO partners to stop arms smuggling into Gaza from Syria and Iran — presumably at sea before the weapons arrive in Egypt. It's unclear if that will prove more effective, but it is a new tack. Q: On the border crossings, who is most likely to run them and monitor them, if they reopen? A: Almost all sides agree that some monitors are needed at Gaza's border crossings before they can reopen to ensure no smuggling or militant entry. European Union monitors helped with this task in the past. But Hamas insists that because it won Palestinian elections in 2006, it must have a role governing Gaza and thus should have a role monitoring the crossings. Hamas' rival, the more moderate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, has just as bitterly fought such a Hamas role. The Israeli offensive did not end Hamas' political control of Gaza, however. That is one reason why moderate Arab countries like Saudi Arabia say no progress can be made without reconciliation between the two Palestinian factions. Yet Israel and the United States, which call Hamas a terrorist group, have grave concerns about Hamas ever having any recognized governing role in Gaza, or at the crossings. That makes compromise, at least so far, very difficult. Q: What about Israel's army in Gaza? Will it stay or leave? A: Hamas is saying that Israel's army must leave during the one-week cease-fire, or fighting might resume again. Israel is thought to want to pull out fairly quickly, too. It has said it does not want to reoccupy Gaza long-term, and its troops are targets for violence while in Gaza. It began withdrawing troops on Sunday, shortly after Hamas announced the one-week cease-fire. Yet if Israel pulls out entirely without some anti-weapons smuggling deal in place, Hamas could merely begin firing rockets again — calling into question the whole objective of the costly Israeli military offensive. That is why many world leaders Sunday called the cease-fire extremely fragile. Q: How does the United States play into this as it prepares to inaugurate a new president Tuesday? A: U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has said his team of advisers will dive into Mideast peace issues on day one. Obama also, of course, has a devastating economic crisis and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to worry about. Yet some in the Mideast hope the Gaza crisis, bad as it remains, gives Obama's team an avenue to restart broader Mideast peace efforts — since crisis has sometimes pushed Mideast players toward negotiations. Many see the Gaza crisis as a proxy war between Iran, which supports Hamas, and more-moderate Arabs who want accommodation with Israel. Obama, who has pledged to negotiate hard with Iran, might bring a fresh approach. It's unclear how Israel would react to that, in part because it faces elections determining its own future course in just over three weeks. source
We could say the same about Israel After all the distruption they have caused and their terrorist acts, they have acheived nothing. A whole army against a group and they were still unable to stop the rockets. What fucking jokes.