U.N. attempts to broker Gaza ceasefire; Hamas says it is “interested in calm”
The hudna is never meant to last, but Hamas will take full advantage of the chance to regroup and reload under cover of the legitimacy (such as it is) of a U.N.-brokered ceasefire… if they ever actually stop firing. As the all-too-true Israeli quip puts it: “We cease and they fire.”
More on this story. “Gaza ceasefire reportedly brokered by UN official,” from the Jerusalem Post, April 10: full story below the fold.
But its not all bad news:
The Iron Dome battery deployed in Be’er Sheba intercepted two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip over the course of Friday night. The Iron Dome’s battery in Ashkelon intercepted as many as four rockets. The IAF struck Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip
Other news:
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- Video of Hamas setting up a rocket launch – from a cemetery
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- Yemen kicks Al Jizz out of the country; Syria stops photographs
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Roberty Serry successfully brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip including Hamas, Palestinian news agency Ma’an quoted senior Palestinian sources as saying on Sunday.
The deal, reportedly reached Saturday night stipulated that the IDF stop its air and artillery strikes against Palestinian terrorist groups, who also reportedly have agreed to halt their rocket and mortar fire.
Neither Jerusalem nor Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip have announced a ceasefire, but senior officials made statements Sunday hinting to their openness towards such a deal.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said early Sunday that Jerusalem was willing to accept a mutual ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza after several days of projectile fire and IDF strikes, adding that “If necessary, we will act, but,” he said, “restraint is also a form of strength.”
“If they stop firing on our communities, we will stop firing. If they stop firing in general, it will be quiet, it will be good,” Barak told Israel Radio.
On the Gazan the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, Al-Quds, said that it was committed to a ceasefire with Israel, saying it was in the “interests of our people not to give Israel an excuse to launch a major military operation in Gaza.”
The announcement came only hours after the group claimed responsibility for firing three mortars and a rocket into Israeli territory Sunday morning.
Abu Ahmed, Islamic Jihad’s spokesperson, said that his group would cease violence “so long as Israel fulfills it’s responsibility and stops attacks against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
Hamas also softened its language on Sunday.
The group’s spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Sami Abu Zuhri, on said that “The Palestinian factions are not interested in escalation.” He added, “if the Israeli aggression stopped, it would be natural for calm to be restored.”
This, from the group that fired an anti-tank missile into an Israeli school bus on Thursday.
The Associated Press reported that, in a rare move, Hamas’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ghazi Hamad told Israel Radio in Hebrew that Hamas was “interested in calm, but want the Israeli military to stop operations.”
The current round of violence began on Thursday when Hamas’ armed wing, the Izzadin Kassam Brigades, fired an anti-tank missile at an Israel school bus, leaving a 16-year-old in critical condition. Over the weekend, Palestinian terrorist groups in the Strip fired over 120 mortars, Kassam and Grad rockets into Israeli territory. Nearly two-dozen Palestinians, including members of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups have been killed in IDF strikes.
Israel Radio reported that officials in Jerusalem had received a request from Hamas’ political wing through intermediaries asking for a cease fire Saturday afternoon….
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To call for a Palestinian state is to call for genocide. There is nothing peaceful about a call for genocide. It is not possible to peacefully implement genocide. Every mention of a Two State Solution is an encouragement to further violence and murder. A reward for the butchers who have been at this business for some 1300 years. Urge the creation of a Palestinian State and you might as well call for the resurrection of the Third Reich. There are linguistic and cultural differences, but both follow the law of the beast. Let there be no more lies about good intentions and no more self-deceit about the search for peace. The road to Palestine does not lead to peace, but to the cemetery.
It is time to stop the lies and tell the truth. The call to peace is the call to death. To promote the creation of a Palestinian state is a violent act. The peacemakers are collaborators in genocide. Their charges are the murderers. Palestine is genocide. It is the cultivated work of an ideology that has successfully turned millions of people into born serial killers or their accomplices. Its two political favorites are Barghouti of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the Hamas leadership. Their only accomplishment is the death toll, their house of state is the cemetery and their constitution is the ravings of a bigoted murderer. To stand for them is to stand for murder. To stand against them is to stand for life.
Sultan Knish