Solid report on the early stages of the cease-fire, including a poignant comment from a Palestinian civilian in Gaza caught in the destruction, and the father of an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas.
Israel imposed the blockade in June 2007 after Hamas seized exclusive control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and has fired thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel since 2005.
Saturday’s strike prompted U.N. officials to ask for an independent investigation to determine whether a war crime had been committed, the first time they have done so since Israel began its offensive. “We think it’s necessary,” said Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. “We’d like to see the facts speak for themselves.”
In each of the attacks on U.N. buildings, the Israeli military has said it was responding to shots or mortar fire from Hamas fighters, although Israeli officials have apologized for Thursday’s strike.
The Israeli military said Saturday that it would investigate the latest incident but again suggested that soldiers were defending themselves. “Initial inquiries have shown that in all of these incidents, soldiers were fired upon, either from the buildings in question or from their vicinity,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
In Gaza, exhausted residents said they hoped the cease-fire would take root but were skeptical. Noha Abu Jabaim, 37, a housewife whose family members were chased from their village by the fighting, said things could “still get much worse.”
“We need a long cease-fire, 10 years at least,” she said. “But I don’t see any light of hope with either side of this conflict. Both Israel and Hamas are losers. Hamas lost because Israel hit so many civilians. As for the Israelis, they didn’t end the launching of the rockets or stop the resistance. They only killed the innocents. In the end, nobody wins.”
More than 1,140 Palestinians, including about 500 women and children, have been killed in Gaza since the fighting began Dec. 27, according to Gazan health officials. Thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, have died.
Although Hamas absorbed heavy losses in manpower and materiel over the past three weeks, it never lost its capacity to launch strikes on Israel. On Saturday, Palestinian fighters aimed about two dozen missiles and rockets into Israel, including several that landed after Olmert’s speech.
I am far from a Hamas historian, but highly informed sources tell me that Hamas has agreed to a two-state solution, but the Israeli government has reneged on the requisite terms. I seriously question the repeated phrase that “Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.” Is this true? According to my sources, it is not current. The Israeli government occupied Gaza from 1964 through 2005, and reimposed a devastating blockade in 2007 against a captive civilian population—a clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.