A cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas has been reached, according to Egypt’s foreign minister announced Wednesday at a news conference.
The cease-fire took effect at 9:00PM local time (2:00PM ET). Israeli officials claimed there were rockets from Gaza fired after that time, but most media are reporting the ceasefire has generally held so far.
On Tuesday, Hamas, through Egypt, proposed a ceasefire deal which included their terms: stop assassinations; stop rocket fire from Gaza; ease border crossings (not open totally); the guarantor of ceasefire is the Egyptian government.
Israel claimed the demands asked too much of Israel, and the truce deal languished. Today, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Israel with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the ceasefire was reportedly agreed to, although the exact and final terms have not been publicized.
According to Al Jazeera, Israel agreed to the ceasefire, but refused to lift or even ease the economic blockade on Gaza, which is causing severe poverty and suffering.
One can never rely on Zionists to keep 'agreements'. They want to call the shots; they will pick and choose and find a pretext to provoke another war at any time if that is in their interests, same as all previous wars. Maintaining the blockade and starving the Gazaans is in fact a continuation of Zionist aggression and an act of war in itself. Gazaans have the by international law recognized right of resistence and defend themselves. There rests a heavy responsibility on Egypt to help Gaza and open the border.
the fact that the final terms are not publicized is worrisome. egypt has an opening here, if they want to show they are humane and want to stand up to the bully….
egypt should state that an *arms* embargo is all they will support, and without a lifting of the siege (meaning no buffer zone where farmers can't farm, no restrictions on fishing for at least 10 miles out, and the ability for gaza to trade and have freedom of movement in and out)… egypt will allow free flow of *ANYTHING* across the rafah crossing…. and this includes arms…. of serious dimensions.
come on morsi… free gaza, or fuck off.