TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Cease-Fire Takes Tenuous Hold In Gaza Strip

ADVERTISEMENT

The Washington Post

Published: January 19, 2009

JERUSALEM - Israeli soldiers flashed the victory sign Sunday as they began withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. Shell-shocked Palestinians emerged from shelters and counted their dead. As a tenuous cease-fire took hold, however, few people on either side predicted an end to the cycle of violence that has endured for generations.

The 22-day war ended without surrender. Neither Israel nor Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, made any concessions, except to stop fighting temporarily.

"The essence of this is you have two completely separate cease-fires, with no underpinnings in them of agreement or understanding, and no resolution of the original causes of the conflict," said Alistair Crooke, a former British intelligence officer and former European Union adviser on Palestinian issues.

Although Hamas sustained the heavier losses, by a lopsided margin, Israeli officials acknowledged that the movement could quickly rebuild its political and military wings and that it still posed a potent long-term threat to Israel.

Binyamin Netanyahu, head of the Likud party and a leading contender to become Israel's next prime minister, lamented that Hamas had not lost its grip on power in Gaza. He said there was little to prevent the movement from restoring its arms-smuggling pipelines.

After Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire late Saturday, Hamas leaders at first vowed to keep fighting. They demanded an end to the economic blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt, the reopening of border crossings and a withdrawal by Israeli troops.

Their demands were ignored, and a day later Hamas buckled.

Its leaders said they would join in the cease-fire but warned they would take up arms again if Israeli forces did not pull out in seven days.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, an exiled Hamas leader based in Damascus, Syria, said members of the Islamist movement and other Palestinian fighters would press ahead with negotiations, mediated by Egypt, to end the blockade

"We are ready," Marzouk said, reading a statement on Syrian television, "to reach a definite agreement that meets our known demands to lift the blockade permanently and open all border crossings."

Hamas demonstrated, however, that it could keep launching rockets whenever it liked. Fifteen landed in southern Israel on Sunday before Hamas' announcement that it would observe the cease-fire.

Hundreds of Palestinians tried to return Sunday to their homes in destroyed neighborhoods northwest of Gaza City. Taken aback by the devastation, many went back to U.N. emergency shelters after retrieving clothes and blankets from the rubble. At least 35 bodies were recovered in the two neighborhoods by late Sunday afternoon, local health officials said.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT