Israel declares unilateral ceasefire - Ground forces to remain in Gaza

Date: 17 / 01 / 2009  Time:  22:21
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

Israeli terrorist government prime minister, Ehud Olmert, announced that Israeli forces will hold their fire beginning at 2am on Sunday morning local time, although Israeli forces will remain in Gaza.

During a late-evening press conference at the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Olmert said that Israel would consider withdrawing its forces from Gaza only if Hamas agrees to completely hold its fire.

More than 1,200 Palestinians, a third of them children, have been killed in the three-week Israeli onslaught. On the last day of the war, Israeli forces shelled a United Nations school where displaced Gazans had taken shelter. The three days before the announcement of the ceasefire witnessed some of the most intense shelling.

Olmert claimed that Israel’s goals "were met in their entirety, and even beyond.”

Olmert said that Hamas had deliberately been left out of the ceasefire arrangement because it is a “terrorist” organization.

Hamas itself said that it would disregard the Israeli declaration of a ceasefire, fighting on until its demands are met. “They have to understand that they have to talk to the resistance. It’s useless to talk to Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Abbas],” said Hamas representative in Lebanon Usama Hamdan.

“As long as the troops remain in Gaza resistance will continue,” added Hamdan.

As the Israeli leader spoke, Israeli and Hamas officials were in Egypt, where indirect talks are continuing towards a formal ceasefire arrangement.

Olmert also expressed “regret for the pain and the suffering for the unbearable situation,” but nonetheless blamed Hamas for their situation. “Israel used its forces with as much sensitivity to the civilian pollution as it could,” he claimed.

Also at the press conference, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the assault on Gaza has been “a war of choice, but the right one.”

In Gaza, residents were not convinced. A 22-year-old journalist in Gaza City said Olmert's declaration was "a lie, and even if it's true, the losses are too much already."

As Israeli troops remain on the ground, the situation in Gaza remains uncertain.

This is not the first time a unilateral ceasefire has been declared in the current conflict. On 22 December, five days before Israel launched its massive air war on Gaza, Hamas declared a self-imposed one-day halt to its fire, to give negotiations a chance to restore calm. Israel rejected this.

Speaking to Reuters on that same day, Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev said, "A ceasefire cannot be unilateral.”

Asked by Ma'an on Saturday about what had changed in Israel's view, Regev said only that Olmert "would address that" in his speech.

Abbas, Ban Ki-Moon, Mubarak and Sarkozy to meet in Cairo Sunday on Gaza ceasefire

Date: 17 / 01 / 2009  Time:  20:19
Bethlehem - Ma’an -

Egyptian officials invited acting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy to Cairo for talks on strategies to end the attacks on Gaza, according to The Egyptian news agency Al-Shahrq- Al-Awsat on Saturday.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will host the talks, to which UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has also been invited. They are scheduled to take place Sunday.

Cairo is set to host leaders from around the globe, according to several western diplomats, including Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) ambassador to Egypt Nabil Amr said the talks between Abbas and Mubarak aim at securing an immediate halt to the military action.