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Israel-Palestine News Highlights: Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire, halting a deadly 11-day war that led to widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip, brought life in much of Israel to a standstill and claimed over 200 lives. The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip, came into force early today. Each side said it stood ready to retaliate for any truce violations by the other. The truce brokered by Egypt, which also included Gaza's second-most powerful armed group, Islamic Jihad, was agreed upon following mounting international pressure to stem the bloodshed which erupted on May 10. At 2 a.m. local time, just as the cease-fire took effect, frenzy life returned to the streets of Gaza. People went out of their homes, some shouting “Allahu Akbar" or whistling from balconies. Many fired in the air, celebrating the truce. A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the security cabinet had "unanimously accepted the recommendation of all of the security officials ... to accept the Egyptian initiative for a mutual ceasefire without pre-conditions". Hamas and Islamic Jihad also confirmed the ceasefire in statements. "This is the euphoria of victory," said Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas figure, in front of a crowd of thousands of Palestinians who had gathered in the streets to celebrate.
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Israel has hit Palestinian militant group Hamas "very hard" in the Gaza Strip as it successfully struck hundreds of targets including military and intelligence infrastructure and underground tunnels of the outfit in the last few days, a senior Israeli diplomat said in New Delhi on Friday.
Rony Yedidia Clein, the Deputy Chief of the Israeli embassy, said the US and several other countries provided full support to Israeli''s action while India had an understanding of it.
"We spoke with our Indian counterparts. We have found an understanding from them although they did not go for public expression of support as other countries did. We did have an understanding from the Indian government officials we spoke with about the Israeli actions," she said.
Both Israel and Hamas agreed on a ceasefire that has come into effect on Friday after 11 days of intense fighting in which around 230 people were killed in Gaza and 12 in Israel.
PTI
Tidying up her building's bomb shelter after 11 days of conflict when Palestinian militant rockets rained down, Israeli mother Tammy Zamir felt relief mixed with worry that a truce to this round of fighting did not mean an end to the violence. "I am happy that it's over but on the other side I'm certain there will be another escalation and we will be scared once again and have to go down to the shelter," she said, speaking in the Israeli city of Ashkelon.
Looking on, after alerts had rung out night and day, Zamir's son Osher said: "Im scared of the rocket sirens and the rockets falling." Friday's ceasefire means Israelis in Ashkelon and other cities in rocket range can now start to resume normal routines that were put on hold during what the military said was one of the heaviest barrages Israel has ever faced.
Israel, in turn, launched round-the-clock airstrikes on Gaza, in its latest flare-up with Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the enclave which has 2 million people, many of them refugees, some of them families originally from Ashkelon. About 4,400 rockets were fired at Israel, with about 600 falling inside Gaza and many others stopped by Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system. But rockets still got through, slamming into homes, synagogues and other buildings.
"We would have liked Hamas to have been eliminated but we knew it would not happen," Tomer Glam, mayor of Ashkelon, told Israeli broadcaster Kan on Friday. "The biggest damage has been its toll sadly on our people."
Israel says 13 people have been killed in the conflict, the fourth between Israel and Hamas since the group took control of Gaza in 2007. Palestinians, who put their death toll at 243, were also emerging to view flattened buildings and other damage in the narrow strip of land surrounded by Israel, the Mediterranean Sea and small stretch of border with Egypt.
Reuters
As with the last three wars, the fighting was ended by an informal cease-fire brokered by Egypt and other mediators, the exact terms of which were not made public.
Hamas claimed that Israel agreed to halt police actions at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem and the threatened eviction of Palestinian families from the nearby Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Both had sparked Palestinian protests and clashes with police that eventually ignited the war. But there was no confirmation from Israel or mediators.
Previous cease-fires have stopped major fighting but proved shaky. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and exchanged fire countless times since the Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza from forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Scattered clashes at Al-Aqsa after Friday prayers were an early test of the truce's durability.
No cease-fire has addressed the underlying issues fueling the decades-old conflict, including Israel's occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state and Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist. Israel and the Palestinians have not held substantive peace talks in more than a decade. (AP)
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has praised the "generosity and kindheartedness" of the Indian caregiver who was killed on May 11 in a rocket attack by Palestinian militants from Gaza. Soumya Santosh, 30, who hailed from Kerala's Idukki district, worked as a caregiver attending to an old woman at a house in the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. She was talking to her husband Santhosh over a video call in the evening on May 11 when a rocket fired from Gaza directly hit the house where she was working. (PTI)
Palestinians rallied by the thousands early Friday after a cease-fire took effect in the latest Gaza war, with many viewing it as costly but clear victory for the Islamic militant group Hamas. Israel vowed to respond with a new level of force to any further hostilities. (AP)
Scattered clashes between Palestinian protesters, Israeli police at flashpoint Jerusalem site hours after Gaza truce, news agency AP reported. More details were awaited.
A bomb blast on Friday killed six people at a pro-Palestinian rally in Southwest Pakistan, police said. The bomb, which was attached to a motorcycle, targeted the vehicle of the leader of the hardline religious party that had organised the event, local police chief Jafar Khan told Reuters by phone. It exploded as people were dispersing at the end of the rally in Chaman city near the Afghan border, he said.
Pope Francis on Friday hailed theIsrael-Palestinian ceasefire and urged the entire Catholic Church to pray for peace. "I thank God for the decision to halt the armed conflicts and acts of violence, and I pray for the pursuit of paths of dialogue and peace," he told ambassadors to the Holy See.
"Tomorrow evening, the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, together with their faithful, will gather to celebrate the Vigil of Pentecost in Saint Stephen’s Church in Jerusalem and to implore the gift of peace."I take this occasion to ask all the pastors and faithful of the Catholic Church to unite themselves spiritually with this prayer.
"May every community pray to the Holy Spirit 'that Israelis and Palestinians may find the path of dialogue and forgiveness, be patient builders of peace and justice, and be open, step by step, to a common hope, to coexistence among brothers and sisters'." (AFP)
Amidst a pandemic, if there is something which could force global news media eyeballs off it, it would be news about some good old fashioned West Asian conflict. The explanation for the enduring conflict between Israel and the Palestinians differs based on who you talk to and what timeline one uses.
Much of the blame should go to the West, which allowed a foreign State to be created in 1948. Unfortunately, despite the claims of being “a land without a people for a people without a land”, this land was populated with Palestinians who obviously did not want to leave their land for other people. Since 1948, Israel has been expanding its boundaries far beyond what was originally envisaged. This lies at the root of this intractable conflict.
Read:Israel-Palestine Conflict | The world reacts with predictable indifference
Emergency workers on Friday recovered five bodies and rescued around 10 survivors from the rubble of what appeared to be a tunnel in Gaza hit by Israeli bombardment, medics and witnesses said.Raed al-Dahshan, deputy head of Gaza's civil defence, said they were still sifting through the rubble to find more bodies, hours after a ceasefire ended 11 days of Israeli air strikes on the besieged coastal enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas. AFP
France on Friday welcomed a ceasefire brokered betweenIsraeland Hamas after 11 days of fighting, but said the violence underscored the need for a relaunch of the peace process between the Jewish state and Palestinians.
"I welcome the ceasefire, which puts an end to a cycle of violence with a heavy civilian toll," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement, hailing the "fundamental role" played by Egypt as a mediator.He said that the violence had "underscored the need for a relaunch of a genuine political process between the parties," adding that without this "cycles of violence will be repeated." (AFP)
The European Union on Friday welcomed a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, and vowed to increase efforts for a long-term "political solution" to resolve the crisis."The European Union welcomes the announced ceasefire bringing to an end the violence in and around Gaza. We commend Egypt, Qatar, United Nations, United States and others who have played a facilitating role in this," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.
"We are appalled and regret the loss of life over these past 11 days. As the EU has consistently reiterated, the situation in the Gaza Strip has long been unsustainable." The statement insisted that "only a political solution will bring sustainable peace and end once for all the Palestinian-Israeli conflict".
