Both Israel and Hamas have agreed to a UN-brokered humanitarian ceasefire for 72 hours, beginning at 1 AM Eastern Friday morning, and which will include efforts to negotiate a more permanent settlement.
Before the announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted he would not accept any ceasefire that didn’t allow Israel to continue destroying tunnels inside the Gaza Strip, though the current ceasefire does not seem to allow them to keep attacking the strip.
Fighting continued throughout the day, though it seemed to be tapering off by evening, with the toll standing at 1,452 Gazans killed, 8,295 wounded, both overwhelmingly civilians. On the Israeli side, the death toll is 64, with 61 of them soldiers.
Previous ceasefires have not lasted their entire span before being canceled, though there are high hopes among Western negotiators that this would be a serious chance to make a deal.
Making a deal isn’t going to be easy, with Hamas seeking an end to the Gaza blockade and Israel hoping to see a full disarmament of every faction in the strip. Either way, talks on a settlement are planned in Cairo.
Though Egypt has traditionally been the broker of these assorted ceasefires, the current junta is hostile toward Hamas, and is refusing to allow them to send any representatives unless it is in a Fatah-led delegation.
It is time for government around the world to boycott Israel once and for all to prevent Israel continues killing and stealing Palestinians land, then and only then Israel going to lift the Gaza embargo and give the freedom to people of Gaza that they deserve.
I think it would be hilarious if the entire population of Gaza and the West Bank were to evacuate, and then petition the UN for the creation of a Palestinian state based on their land claims predating 1948. Then the UN could carve off a chunk of Israel and hand it to the Palestinians as THEIR new nation- just like it did when it formed Israel out of nothing. Israel has never declared its borders, so how could they possibly object to or even argue against such a UN mandate?
I know- that goes in the category of 'never gonna happen'. But what irony if it DID.
I thought the definition for a ceasefire was to end all hostilities, but the Israeli's seems to have a different version. We'll stop bombing civilians target, but continue ground offensive against "terror tunnels," sound like the Israeli's are lighting their candle at both ends…..again.
I think Israel's definition of a cease-fire is however long it takes them to do maintenance on their planes, artillery, and tanks. Once that's taken care of, it's back to the war whether time's up or not.
Putrid little Zionist anti-war fakirs who cowardly eliminate posts are Israel's first line of defense…. Where is my post A-holes!?
At least they posted yours before the deleted it. Mine never got posted.
Thank you, antiCENSORwarCENSOR.CENSOR.com.
[moderator’s note: Actually, yours did get posted. It got caught in our spam filters and was approved when I saw it (which was quite awhile, as I was apparently the only person moderating comments on Saturday and ended up being out of the house most of the day). I’m posting this one, too, just to expose your ignorance about the meaning of the word “censor” – TLK]
I don't think you'll get very far around these parts with that attitude. Pro- and anti- comments are posted, but sometimes the content of those posts are in the extreme and they have to be cleared- you should know that by now. Besides, it's not a good policy to insult the people who decide if your post is suitable for publishing or not; in some parts of the internet, you'd be banned for that.