Gaza Strip militants offered Israel an immediate weeklong truce Sunday, but conditioned longer-term quiet on a complete Israeli troop withdrawal from the territory, militant leaders said after their men peppered southern Israel with rockets despite a unilateral Israeli cease-fire.
The rocket fire had threatened to re-ignite three weeks of violence that killed more than 1,200 Palestinians and turned the streets of Hamas-ruled Gaza into battlegrounds.
Israel, which mounted the offensive three weeks ago to halt years of rocket attacks, agreed to silence its guns and ground its aircraft early Sunday. It said it only acted in Gaza after militants attacked.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel's cease-fire offer stood.
"Israel last night announced that from 2 a.m. (Sunday), we would cease all offensives against the Hamas military machine, and that would be of course on the premise that Hamas would cease attacks on Israel," Regev said in response to the Hamas cease-fire announcement.
"Our policy still stands," Regev said. "We will honor our cease-fire as we said last night and will only act to defend ourselves if we see Hamas provocation."
Thirteen Israelis died during the offensive, including four killed by rocket fire. More than 1,250 Palestinains were killed, more than half of them civilians.
Israel said it would not pull out troops it sent into Gaza two weeks ago until rocket fire halted.
The Palestinian cease-fire offer was announced by military leaders in Gaza and in Damascus, Syria, the base of Gaza's exiled Hamas leaders. They did not set a time, but appeared to mean immediately.
In Damascus, Moussa Abu Marzouk, Hamas' deputy leader, told Syrian TV that the cease-fire would last a week to give Israel time to withdraw and open all Gaza border crossings to let humanitarian aid into the embattled seaside territory.
"We the Palestinian resistance factions declare a cease-fire from our side in Gaza and we confirm our stance that the enemy's troops must withdraw from Gaza within a week," Abu Marzouk said.
Hamas, which rejects Israel's existence, violently seized control of Gaza in June 2007, provoking a harsh Israeli blockade that has deepened the destitution in the territory and confined 1.4 million Palestinians to the tiny coastal strip.
Militants did not back down from their demand that Israel ultimately throw open blockaded crossings.
The Hamas offer raised hopes that the cease-fire would stick more than a few hours. Militants had fired 17 rockets into Israel on Sunday, slightly injuring three people, police said, even as foreign leaders tried cement an end to the war in Egypt.
Israel retaliated against the rocket assaults with air and artillery strikes.
In Gaza, people loaded vans and donkey carts with mattresses and began venturing back to their homes to see what was left standing after the punishing air and ground assault the tiny seaside territory endured. Bulldozers began shoving aside rubble in Gaza City, the territory's biggest population center, to clear a path for cars. Medical workers sifting through mounds of concrete said they recovered 100 bodies amid the debris.
The Shahadeh family was loading mattresses into the trunk of a car in Gaza City, preparing to return to their home in the hard-hit northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.
"I've been told that the devils have left," said Riyadh Shahadeh, referring to the Israelis. "I'm going back to see how I'm going to start again. I don't know what happened to my house. ... I am going back there with a heart full of fear because I am not sure if the area is secure or not, but I have no other option."
In southern Israel, residents who have endured rocket attacks for eight years accused the government of stopping the offensive too soon. Israel declared the cease-fire before reaching a long-term solution to the problem of arms smuggling into Gaza, one of the war's declared aims.
Schools in southern Israel had remained closed in anticipation of the rocket fire that was swift to come. Shortly before the rocket fire resumed, the head of a parents association in the town of Sderot faulted the government for not reaching an agreement directly with Hamas, which Israel shuns.
"It's an offensive that ended without achieving its aims," Batya Katar said. "All the weapons went through Egypt. What's happened there?"
"The weapons will continue to come in through the tunnels and by sea," she said.
Before Hamas made its cease-fire offer, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned militants not to attack.
"Israel's (cease-fire) decision allows it to respond and renew fire at our enemies, the different terror organizations in the Gaza Strip, as long as they continue attacking," Olmert said at the start of the weekly Cabinet session.
"This morning some of them continued their fire, provoking what we had warned of," Olmert said. "This cease-fire is fragile and we must examine it minute by minute, hour by hour."
Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel quoted the head of the Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, as telling ministers that "the operation is not over."
"The next few days will make clear if we are heading toward a cease-fire or the renewal of fighting," Diskin was quoted as saying.
The Israeli operation outraged the Muslim world, sparking dozens of demonstrations. On Sunday, Qatar announced that it had closed Israel's trade office in the small Gulf Arab state and ordered its staff to leave within seven days.
Qatar is the only Gulf Arab state that has ties with Israel.
Leaders of Germany, France, Spain, Britain, Italy, Turkey and the Czech Republic - which holds the rotating European Union presidency - headed for Egypt to lend international backing to the cease-fire. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon are also expected to attend.
Ban welcomed the Israeli move and called on Hamas to stop its rocket fire. "Urgent humanitarian access for the people of Gaza is the immediate priority," he said.
Israel said it was not sending a representative to the meeting. Hamas, shunned internationally as a terrorist organization, was not invited. But the group has been mediating with Egypt, and any arrangement to open Gaza's blockaded borders for trade would likely need Hamas' acquiescence.
Abbas, too, echoed Hamas' call for a total Israeli withdrawal and the lifting of bruising Israeli sanctions.
Israel's cease-fire "is an important and necessary event but it's insufficient," said Abbas, Hamas' bitter rival and the top leader in the West Bank, the larger of the two Palestinian territories. "There should be a comprehensive Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a lifting of the siege and a reopening of crossings" to aid, he said, speaking from Egypt.
Hamas would not rearm, as militants did during a 6-month truce that preceded the war. In a step toward achieving those guarantees, Israel on Friday won a U.S. commitment to help crack down on weapons smuggling into Egypt and from there, to Gaza.
But Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Saturday that his country would not be bound by the agreement. Egypt's cooperation is essential if the smuggling is to be stopped.
taken from: jakarta post
The rocket fire had threatened to re-ignite three weeks of violence that killed more than 1,200 Palestinians and turned the streets of Hamas-ruled Gaza into battlegrounds.
Israel, which mounted the offensive three weeks ago to halt years of rocket attacks, agreed to silence its guns and ground its aircraft early Sunday. It said it only acted in Gaza after militants attacked.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel's cease-fire offer stood.
"Israel last night announced that from 2 a.m. (Sunday), we would cease all offensives against the Hamas military machine, and that would be of course on the premise that Hamas would cease attacks on Israel," Regev said in response to the Hamas cease-fire announcement.
"Our policy still stands," Regev said. "We will honor our cease-fire as we said last night and will only act to defend ourselves if we see Hamas provocation."
Thirteen Israelis died during the offensive, including four killed by rocket fire. More than 1,250 Palestinains were killed, more than half of them civilians.
Israel said it would not pull out troops it sent into Gaza two weeks ago until rocket fire halted.
The Palestinian cease-fire offer was announced by military leaders in Gaza and in Damascus, Syria, the base of Gaza's exiled Hamas leaders. They did not set a time, but appeared to mean immediately.
In Damascus, Moussa Abu Marzouk, Hamas' deputy leader, told Syrian TV that the cease-fire would last a week to give Israel time to withdraw and open all Gaza border crossings to let humanitarian aid into the embattled seaside territory.
"We the Palestinian resistance factions declare a cease-fire from our side in Gaza and we confirm our stance that the enemy's troops must withdraw from Gaza within a week," Abu Marzouk said.
Hamas, which rejects Israel's existence, violently seized control of Gaza in June 2007, provoking a harsh Israeli blockade that has deepened the destitution in the territory and confined 1.4 million Palestinians to the tiny coastal strip.
Militants did not back down from their demand that Israel ultimately throw open blockaded crossings.
The Hamas offer raised hopes that the cease-fire would stick more than a few hours. Militants had fired 17 rockets into Israel on Sunday, slightly injuring three people, police said, even as foreign leaders tried cement an end to the war in Egypt.
Israel retaliated against the rocket assaults with air and artillery strikes.
In Gaza, people loaded vans and donkey carts with mattresses and began venturing back to their homes to see what was left standing after the punishing air and ground assault the tiny seaside territory endured. Bulldozers began shoving aside rubble in Gaza City, the territory's biggest population center, to clear a path for cars. Medical workers sifting through mounds of concrete said they recovered 100 bodies amid the debris.
The Shahadeh family was loading mattresses into the trunk of a car in Gaza City, preparing to return to their home in the hard-hit northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.
"I've been told that the devils have left," said Riyadh Shahadeh, referring to the Israelis. "I'm going back to see how I'm going to start again. I don't know what happened to my house. ... I am going back there with a heart full of fear because I am not sure if the area is secure or not, but I have no other option."
In southern Israel, residents who have endured rocket attacks for eight years accused the government of stopping the offensive too soon. Israel declared the cease-fire before reaching a long-term solution to the problem of arms smuggling into Gaza, one of the war's declared aims.
Schools in southern Israel had remained closed in anticipation of the rocket fire that was swift to come. Shortly before the rocket fire resumed, the head of a parents association in the town of Sderot faulted the government for not reaching an agreement directly with Hamas, which Israel shuns.
"It's an offensive that ended without achieving its aims," Batya Katar said. "All the weapons went through Egypt. What's happened there?"
"The weapons will continue to come in through the tunnels and by sea," she said.
Before Hamas made its cease-fire offer, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned militants not to attack.
"Israel's (cease-fire) decision allows it to respond and renew fire at our enemies, the different terror organizations in the Gaza Strip, as long as they continue attacking," Olmert said at the start of the weekly Cabinet session.
"This morning some of them continued their fire, provoking what we had warned of," Olmert said. "This cease-fire is fragile and we must examine it minute by minute, hour by hour."
Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel quoted the head of the Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, as telling ministers that "the operation is not over."
"The next few days will make clear if we are heading toward a cease-fire or the renewal of fighting," Diskin was quoted as saying.
The Israeli operation outraged the Muslim world, sparking dozens of demonstrations. On Sunday, Qatar announced that it had closed Israel's trade office in the small Gulf Arab state and ordered its staff to leave within seven days.
Qatar is the only Gulf Arab state that has ties with Israel.
Leaders of Germany, France, Spain, Britain, Italy, Turkey and the Czech Republic - which holds the rotating European Union presidency - headed for Egypt to lend international backing to the cease-fire. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon are also expected to attend.
Ban welcomed the Israeli move and called on Hamas to stop its rocket fire. "Urgent humanitarian access for the people of Gaza is the immediate priority," he said.
Israel said it was not sending a representative to the meeting. Hamas, shunned internationally as a terrorist organization, was not invited. But the group has been mediating with Egypt, and any arrangement to open Gaza's blockaded borders for trade would likely need Hamas' acquiescence.
Abbas, too, echoed Hamas' call for a total Israeli withdrawal and the lifting of bruising Israeli sanctions.
Israel's cease-fire "is an important and necessary event but it's insufficient," said Abbas, Hamas' bitter rival and the top leader in the West Bank, the larger of the two Palestinian territories. "There should be a comprehensive Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a lifting of the siege and a reopening of crossings" to aid, he said, speaking from Egypt.
Hamas would not rearm, as militants did during a 6-month truce that preceded the war. In a step toward achieving those guarantees, Israel on Friday won a U.S. commitment to help crack down on weapons smuggling into Egypt and from there, to Gaza.
But Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Saturday that his country would not be bound by the agreement. Egypt's cooperation is essential if the smuggling is to be stopped.
taken from: jakarta post
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