Gaza truce holds after days of deadly clashes
AFP
Date: 4/10/2011
by Selim Saheb Ettaba Selim Saheb Ettaba – Sun Apr 10, 2:09 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – A ceasefire appeared to take hold in Gaza on Sunday, hours after it was floated by both Israeli and Palestinian officials following days of deadly clashes.
In the Palestinian enclave, there were no reports of any deaths for the first time since Thursday, when Israel launched a wave of air strikes in retaliation for an anti–tank missile attack on an Israeli school bus.
Only around a dozen shots were fired at Israel after the deaths of 18 Palestinians, half of them civilians, in the deadliest confrontation since Israel's devastating new year assault on the territory in 2008–2009.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said militants were firing rockets in response to Israel's April 2 killing of three senior members of the Islamist movement.
But the confrontation eased on Sunday after Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was ready to end its military action, if Hamas and other armed groups stopped firing.
"If they cease firing, we'll cease firing," he said. "We will act along the lines of what happens on the ground," added Barak, who indefinitely postponed a trip to Washington as violence escalated.
It was the first time that an Israeli minister had floated the possibility of a ceasefire since the latest violence erupted.
In Cairo, the Arab League said it would call on the United Nations to impose a no–fly zone over Gaza after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that continued rocket fire by Gaza militants would be dealt with harshly.
"If the criminal attacks against the Israeli military and civilians continue, Israel will respond with even more force," he told reporters at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting.
Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza had previously announced a unilateral truce that unravelled before it had a chance to take hold, with militants firing dozens of rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel.
But on Saturday, a senior Israeli security official said Hamas's political wing had asked Israel for a ceasefire.
"The political branch of Hamas has sent a message asking for an Israeli ceasefire" in exchange for a halt to Palestinian attacks, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said on Sunday that the group would be willing to stop firing if Israel announced a ceasefire.
"The ball is in the court of the occupation," Abu Zuhri told AFP. "Our message to the occupation is that a truce will be met with a truce.
"We are not interested in escalation and the Palestinian factions are defending themselves and the Palestinian people in the face of Israeli escalation," he said.
The armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza said it would also be willing to commit to a bilateral ceasefire with Israel.
But rockets and mortar rounds continued to hit Israeli territory on Sunday, with an Israeli military spokeswoman saying that by late afternoon around 10 projectiles had been fired.
On Saturday, Hamas declared a state of emergency in the face of the deadly Israeli reprisals.
In Cairo, Arab League chief Amr Mussa said on Sunday the organisation would ask the UN Security Council to impose a no–fly zone over Gaza.
Mussa told an emergency meeting of Arab League envoys that "the Arab bloc in the United Nations has been directed to ask for the convention of the Security Council to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza and impose a no–fly zone."
The current confrontation is the deadliest since Israel's Operation Cast Lead claimed the lives of some 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza –– more than half civilians –– and 13 Israelis, including 10 soldiers.
It has been the first test of Israel's newly deployed Iron Dome short–range defence system, which the military said has successfully intercepted several Grad rockets fired from Gaza.
Netanyahu later paid a visit to a military post near the southern city of Ashkelon where the defence system, the first of its kind in the world, is deployed.
"Iron Dome is an impressive technological achievement. Israel has reached a (technological) breakthrough. But we cannot defend every house, every facility and every site in Israel," he was quoted as saying in a statement.
Israeli media reported the United States has promised the Jewish state $205 million to fund an additional four Iron Dome batteries.
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