[It may bear recalling that the armed confrontation had, this time, commenced on on June 28, with Hamas firing rockets from Gaza, to be followed by Israeli airstrikes on the following day. The 'Operation Protective Edge', indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, was launched by Israel on July 8. The first ceasefire proposal was put forward by Egypt on July 14, and the ceasefire which would commence at 9 AM (local time) on July 15 would terminate six hours later as the Hamas rejected it. This is the first time since then that a ceasefire is holding for a while (since August 5). Reportedly, 1,867 Palestinians, most of them civilians. have been killed and so have been 64 of Israeli soldiers and three civilians since fighting intensified on July 8. All (some 30) underground tunnels in Gaza and a large stock of Hamas rockets have been destroyed since the beginning of the ground operations by Israel on July 17. Till July 15 morning about 100 Gazans had been killed.]
I/V. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.609311 Egypt sources: Israeli demand for demilitarization seen by Palestinians as red line Israel says willing to extend cease-fire under current conditions, but Hamas say no such agreement yet reached; also says it will renew fire on Friday unless demands met. By Jack Khoury <http://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/jack-khoury-1.440> and Reuters | Aug. 7, 2014 | 12:44 AM Cease-fire talks were to continue in Cairo on Thursday, as the 72-hour truce between Israel and Gaza entered its final day. Contradictory statements came from the Hamas and Israeli delegations regarding willingness to extend the truce, and Egyptian officials reported that there were considerable differences between the Israeli and Palestinian positions in the cease-fire talks. The Egyptians warned that the talks could stalemate if both sides remained entrenched in their positions. The sources said the Israeli delegation presented its demand to demilitarize the Gaza Strip as well as Hamas and the other terror organizations. This was seen by the Palestinian delegation as a red line, they said. An Israeli official was cited by Reuters late Wednesday saying that an agreement to extend the existing cease-fire in Gaza by 72 hours has been reached in Cairo. The official was quoted as saying that Israel "has expressed its readiness to extend the truce under its current terms." If the report is accurate, the current cease-fire, which is due to expire at 8 A.M. on Friday, would be extended to Monday morning. Another senior Israeli official would not confirm the report, though he stressed that Israel would be prepared to accept an extension of the cease-fire as long as it was not accompanied by any pre-conditions, as was the case with the original cease-fire on Sunday night. Senior Hamas officials continued to deny agreeing to any extension. Hamas officials also said that it would consider resuming fire on Israel from Friday morning, since its demands are not being addressed. A senior Hamas political leader based in Cairo, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said on Twitter late on Wednesday night that "there is no agreement" to prolong the ceasefire. "Extending the 72-hour calm for another period was not discussed (with Hamas in Cairo today)," said Sami Abu Zuhri, the Hamas spokesman in Gaza. Earlier a senior official with the Islamist movement's armed wing threatened to quit the talks without progress towards achieving its demands to lift a Gaza blockade and free prisoners held by Israel. "Unless the conditions of the resistance are met, the negotiating team will withdraw from Cairo and then it will be up to the resistance in the field," a senior commander of the armed wing told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Egypt's intelligence chief met a Palestinian delegation in Cairo, the state news agency MENA said, a day after he conferred with Israeli representatives. The Palestinian team, led by an official from Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, includes envoys from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group. An Egyptian official said that while the details were being hashed out, "the indirect talks between the Palestinians and Israelis are moving forward," one Egyptian official said, making clear that the opposing sides were not meeting face to face. "It is still too early to talk about outcomes but we are optimistic." Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri told reporters his country was working hard for a deal and sought "solutions to protect the Palestinian people and their interests". Meanwhile, the U.S. special envoy to the talks Frank Lowenstein arrived in Cairo on Wednesday evening to take part in the talks, a State Department spokesman said. II/V. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Gaza-ceasefire-holding-on-second-day-talks-under-way/articleshow/39755117.cms Gaza ceasefire holding on second day, talks under wayReuters | Aug 6, 2014, 04.17 PM IST Israel withdrew ground forces from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning and started a 72-hour Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas as a first step towards a long-term deal. GAZA/CAIRO: A Gaza truce was holding on Wednesday as Egyptian mediators pursued talks with Israeli and Palestinian representatives on an enduring end to a war that has devastated the Hamas Islamist- dominated enclave. Egyptian intelligence officials met in Cairo with a high-level Israeli delegation late on Tuesday, a day after conferring with Palestinians who included envoys from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group, Egyptian officials said. "The indirect talks between the Palestinians and Israelis are moving forward," one Egyptian official said, making clear that the opposing sides were not meeting face to face. "It is still too early to talk about outcomes but we are optimistic." Egyptian and Palestinian sources said further discussions were expected to be held in Cairo on Wednesday, with expectations of an initial response by Israel to Palestinian demands, which it has so far shown no sign of accepting. Israel withdrew ground forces from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning and started a 72-hour Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas as a first step towards a long-term deal. In Gaza, where some half-million people have been displaced by a month of bloodshed, some residents left U.N. shelters to trek back to neighbourhoods where whole blocks have been destroyed by Israeli shelling and the smell of decomposing bodies fills the air. Streets in towns in southern Israel, which had been under daily rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, were filled again with playing children. *BLOCKADE* Palestinians want an end to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade on impoverished Gaza and the release of prisoners, including those Israel arrested in a June crackdown in the occupied West Bank after three Jewish seminary students were kidnapped and killed. Israel has resisted those demands. "For Israel the most important issue is the issue of demilitarisation. We must prevent Hamas from rearming, we must demilitarise the Gaza Strip," Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Reuters television. US Secretary of State John Kerry, in an interview on the BBC's HARDtalk programme, also spoke of a need for Hamas to decommission its rocket arsenal. "What we want to do is support the Palestinians and their desire to improve their lives and to be able to open crossings and get food in and reconstruct and have greater freedom," Kerry said. "But that has to come with a greater responsibility towards Israel, which means giving up rockets, moving into a different plane," he said. Kerry said, however, all this would "finally come together" as part of wider Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts that he has spearheaded but which have been frozen since April over Israel's opposition to a unity deal between Hamas and Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organization. Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to Abbas in 2007, has ruled out giving up its weapons. *HUMANITARIAN AID* An Israeli official, who declined to be identified, said Israel wanted humanitarian aid to flow to the Palestinian enclave's 1.8 million inhabitants as soon as possible. But, the official said, the import of cement - vital for reconstruction - would depend on achieving guarantees that it would not be used by militants to construct more infiltration tunnels leading into Israel and other fortifications. Gaza officials say the war has killed 1,867 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Israel says 64 of its soldiers and three civilians have been killed since fighting began on July 8, after a surge in Palestinian rocket launches. An Israeli opinion poll, conducted after the ceasefire went into effect, said Israelis, while not regarding the Gaza war as a victory for their country's powerful military, remained highly supportive of Netanyahu. According to the poll in the Haaretz newspaper, 51 percent of those surveyed said neither side won, while 36 percent believe that Israel emerged victorious. Six percent said Hamas was the victor. Of the 442 people who took part in the poll, 77 percent described Netanyahu's performance during the war as excellent or good. Efforts to turn the ceasefire into a lasting truce could prove difficult, with the sides far apart on their central demands, and each rejecting the other's legitimacy. Hamas rejects Israel's existence and vows to destroy it, while Israel denounces Hamas as a terrorist group and eschews any ties. Egypt has positioned itself as a mediator in successive Gaza conflicts but, like Israel, its current administration views Hamas as a security threat. Besides the loss of life, the war has cost both sides economically. Gaza faces a massive $6-billion price tag to rebuild devastated infrastructure. Israel has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism and other sectors and fears cuts in overall economic growth this year as well. Palestinian officials said a donor conference to raise funds for Gaza's reconstruction would be held in Oslo next month. III/V. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Israel-accepts-Egypts-Gaza-truce-proposal-Hamas-rejects-initiative/articleshow/38414924.cms Israel accepts Egypt's Gaza truce proposal, Hamas rejects initiative AFP | Jul 15, 2014, 12.16PM IST JERUSALEM: Israel's security cabinet on Tuesday accepted an Egyptian ceasefire proposal, a government spokesman said, after a week of the deadliest violence in and around Gaza in years. "The cabinet has decided to accept the Egyptian initiative for a ceasefire starting 9am today," Ofir Gendelman, spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Twitter. Ministers in the security cabinet had begun meeting early on Tuesday to consider the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire to start immediately from 0600 GMT. Army radio noted that there had been no parallel acceptance of the initiative by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. There were no immediate reports of rocket fire at Israel after the deadline, with the army saying only two rockets had struck the south overnight, and another two shot were shot down just 15 minutes before the Egyptian initiative came into force. Overnight, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP there would be no truce without a fully fledged deal to end hostilities. "In times of war, you don't cease fire and then negotiate," he said. Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, also rejected the proposal as a "surrender", pledging to "intensify" its attacks on Israel. *Children walking through the ruins of a house in the Gaza Strip (AP Phot0)* IV/V. http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/report-israel-conditions.html Palestinian factions reportedly set 10 conditions for 10-year truce with Israel Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Wed, 07/16/2014 - 13:29 Reports in Israeli and Palestinian media say that the two Palestinian resistance groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have set forth ten conditions for a ceasefire and ten-year truce with Israel. Israel's *Maariv* said <http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/597/047.html?hp=1&cat=666&loc=2> that an unnamed "senior Palestinian official" passed it a copy of the demands, which have been transmitted by the factions to Egypt. They include an end to all armed hostilities, the end of the siege of Gaza, and the construction of internationally supervised air and seaports. While Hamas has not as yet officially stated these demands, they are in line with the group's long-standing policy of offering Israel a multi-year truce. The reported conditions come after nine days of Israeli bombardment <http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_sitrep_16_07_2014.pdf> of the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 200 people, injured close to 1,400, and destroyed the homes of 8,200 others. Almost 80 percent of the dead, who include more than thirty children, are civilians, according to the UN <http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_sitrep_16_07_2014.pdf>. Yesterday, Hamas refused to respond to a unilateral "ceasefire" declared by Israel that would have left the situation of siege on the Gaza Strip unchanged <http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/hamas-did-not-reject-ceasefire-israel-did> . Airport, seaport and an end to violence The ten conditions were translated by The Electronic Intifada from an Arabic version published by Ma'an News Agency <http://www.maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=713512>: 1. Mutual cessation of the war and withdrawal of tanks to previous locations and the return of farmers to work their land in the agricultural border areas. 2. Release of all the Palestinians detained since 23 June 2014 and improvement of the conditions of Palestinian prisoners, especially the prisoners from Jerusalem, Gaza and Palestinians of the interior [present-day Israel]. 3. Total lifting of the siege of Gaza and opening the border crossings to goods and people and allowing in all food and industrial supplies and construction of a power plant sufficient to supply all of Gaza. 4. Construction of an international seaport and an international airport supervised by the UN and non-biased countries. 5. Expansion of the maritime fishing zone to 10 kms and supplying fishermen with larger fishing and cargo vessels. 6. Converting the Rafah crossing into an international crossing under supervision of the UN and Arab and friendly countries. 7. Signing a 10-year truce agreement and deployment of international monitors to the borders. 8. A commitment by the occupation government not to violate Palestinian airspace and easing of conditions for worshipers in al-Aqsa mosque. 9. The occupation will not interfere in the affairs of the Palestinian government and will not hinder national reconciliation. 10. Restoration of the border industrial areas and their protection and development. "Should have been met years ago" Dr. Ramy Abdu, chair of the independent group Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/euro-mid> (euromid.org <http://www.euromid.org/en>), told The Electronic Intifada from Gaza City this morning: I believe that these requirements should have been met years ago. The core of these requirements are not political but purely humanitarian and legally binding. The international community has called many times for their implementation. Palestinians have the right to move in and out freely like others in the world. They have the right to import and export, to control their borders and airspace. Israel argues that it left Gaza, so it should stop controlling the lives of Palestinians. Abdu noted that his organization recently published a detailed proposal <http://euromid.org/en/article/517/Working-Paper:-Gaza-Seaport--A-Windowpane-to-the-World> to establish a maritime link from Gaza to the rest of the world with an international role that could "alleviate security concerns." V. http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/07/14/3459100/timeline-how-war-returned-to-gaza/ [The timeline up to July 17.] -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
