The ceasefire "can last nine
days, nine weeks or more, but if it does not hold we will know what to do, and
then of course we shall consider the possibility of resuming our [military]
activity in case of shooting or provocation", he told public radio on
Thursday.
Ismail Haniya, prime minister of
Gaza's Hamas government, thanked Egypt and "believer" Mohamed
Morsi for his country's efforts in securing the ceasefire, saying Gaza's
victory is clear and the moment for Egypt and the region had arrived.
"I thank our Egyptian brothers
and Egyptian intelligence for their tireless efforts to reach the
ceasefire," he said.
"We are satisfied with the
ceasefire agreement as a basis for stopping aggression against Gaza."
The morning after it took effect, the
ceasefire was being honoured in Gaza after eight days of cross-border violence
that resulted in the deaths of 162 Palestinians and five Israelis.
No sound of jets
Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston,
reporting from Gaza City, said that there was calm without the sound of Israeli
F16 fighter jets flying above.
After days and nights cooped up at
home, their buildings rocked by an unrelenting Israeli bombing campaign and the
sound of outgoing Palestinian rocket fire, residents were eager to reclaim
their home towns and their lives as the truce came into effect.
For the first time in more than a
week, the noise of traffic jams and honking horns filled the air in Gaza City,
replacing the booms of air strikes and rocket fire.
Obtained after an intense diplomatic
push led by Egypt and the US, the ceasefire came into force at 19:00 GMT
on Wednesday, based on text of the agreement.
A
senior Israeli official and three aides arrived in Cairo late on Thursday and
were escorted to Egypt's intelligence headquarters, according to Egyptian
airport officials, presumably to hammer out the details of a deal that would
include easing the Israeli blockade of Gaza, according to an AP news
agency report.
The airport officials declined to be
named because they were not authorised to give information to the media.
On the other side, Khaled Meshaal, the
Hamas leader, and Ramadan Shallah, head of the smaller Islamic Jihad group, met
Egypt's intelligence chief as the follow-up talks geared up.
Reaching a deal on a new border
arrangement for Gaza would require major concessions from both sides.
Hamas wants both Israel and Egypt to
lift all border restrictions.
Israel, meanwhile, wants Egypt to halt
weapons smuggling into Gaza through tunnels under the border.
Hamas has been able to significantly
boost its arsenal in the past four years, largely with weapons from Iran,
according to Meshaal, who thanked Iran for its support late on Wednesday.
As part of the ceasefire, Israel
received US pledges to help curb arms shipments to Gaza.
Late on Wednesday night, the
Hamas government announced that Thursday would be a public holiday.
"The Palestinian government
announces that Thursday November 22 is a national holiday of victory and
an official holiday," it said in a statement.
Ceasefire terms
The truce was announced in a joint
press conference in Cairo by Mohammed Kamel Amr, Egyptian foreign
minister, and Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state.
Under the ceasefire terms, Israel was
to stop all aggression against the Gaza Strip from land, sea and air, including
cross-border incursions and targeted killings.
Palestinian factions were to cease all
rocket fire and attacks from Gaza towards Israel, including along the border.
Israel
committed to opening of all border crossings and ease restrictions on movements
of people and goods in and out of the enclave.
Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid,
reporting from Ashkelon in Israel, said that while Israel was hailing the
ceasefire a victory, most people she had spoken to in the area were not happy
about the truce with Hamas.
She said that there were
demonstrations on Wednesday in Sderot and Beer Sheva and that people were
saying that Binyamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, had a choice
between war and selling out and that he chose selling out.
"To the question of whether they
would vote for Netanyahu again, most of the answers were a straight no,"
she said.
Israel is due to hold an election
early next year.
"There is bitterness and a
feeling that a victory was handed over to Hamas. Some said that Netanyahu
"betrayed" them but he will still win the elections because there is
no one else," our correspondent said.
Al Jazeera's Tom Ackerman, reporting
from Jerusalem, said that there were also no celebratory events
there. He said that people were sceptical even though the government said that
all objectives had been achieved by the operation.
Israel also arrested 55 people in the
West Bank on Thursday in response to a bus-bomb attack in Tel Aviv on
Wednesday. This was the first serious bombing in Israel's
commercial capital since 2006.
Meanwhile, Israeli's security agency
Shin Bet said it has arrested the people responsible for the bombing of a
rush-hour bus in Tel Aviv that injured 29 people.
The suspects were arrested near the
West Bank city of Ramallah, the statement said last Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment