Gaza celebrates as truce goes into effect
Celebrations erupted in Gaza
on Tuesday as a long-term ceasefire agreed by Israel and the Palestinians began,
ending 50 days of the deadliest violence in a decade, reports AFP.
The agreement, effective since 1600 GMT, involves an
immediate halt to the violence in Gaza ,
which erupted on July 8 and has claimed the lives of 2,143 Palestinians and 69
on the Israeli side.
The Palestinians said it was a "permanent" truce,
while a senior Israeli official described it as "unconditional and
unlimited in time."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced hope that the
ceasefire in Gaza
will set the stage for talks on a final Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
In Gaza
itself, thousands flooded on to the streets in celebration, some firing
joyfully into the air, among them gunmen from Hamas, AFP correspondents said.
Chanting and clapping they surged through the battered
streets, bellowing songs of victory as a man swathed in a huge green Hamas flag
threw handfuls of sweets into the air.
Mosques used their loudspeakers to broadcast celebratory
chants of "God is greatest" as the war-torn enclave hailed the
apparent end to seven weeks of violence that has seen a quarter of the
territory's 1.8 million people flee their homes.
"Thank God the war is ended. I can't believe I'm still
alive with my kids!" 32-year-old Maha Khaled told AFP.
"It was a very harsh war. I never thought that we would
see peace at the end."
Cars jammed the streets, their horns honking incessantly, as
beaming women and children held up the victory sign and crowds of young men
bounced up and down on nearby rooftops, waving flags.
As night fell, there was no letup in the celebrations as the
rhythmic thud of drums beat a celebratory note and a performer breathed fire to
entertain the ecstatic crowd.
"Today Gaza showed the
world that it is resisting and that it is stronger than Israel ,"
said Tamer al-Madqa, 23.
- 'Ending the blockade' -
But there was no sign of celebration in Israel as
citizens absorbed the news of two people killed when mortar shells hit a
kibbutz in the south.
Ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet
began whetting their political knives after a deal which was reportedly agreed
by premier and his defence minister, with other security cabinet ministers only
updated by phone.
News of the agreement first emerged from the West Bank city
of Ramallah where a Palestinian official told
AFP an elusive deal had been reached over a "durable" halt to more
than seven weeks of bloodshed and violence in and around Gaza .
He said the deal involved a "permanent ceasefire"
and an end to Israel 's
eight-year blockade in a move hailed by Hamas as a "victory for the
resistance."
Ending the blockade had been a key Palestinian demand in
earlier, abortive truce talks in Cairo .
"The Egyptian initiative (includes) an opening of the
crossings for goods and humanitarian and food aid to enter Gaza, as well as
medical supplies and materials to repair the water, electricity and mobile
phone networks," chief Palestinian truce negotiator Azzam al-Ahmed told
AFP.
Restrictions on fishing would end "immediately"
with boats allowed to fish up to six miles offshore with the limit later
extended to 12 miles, he said.
At a later, unspecified date, the two sides would discuss
"the exchange of (Palestinian) prisoners and of the bodies of those
(Israeli soldiers) killed" during the conflict, he said.
"We have accepted, once again, an Egyptian proposal for
an unconditional and unlimited-in-time ceasefire," a senior official said.
"The framework includes an immediate and unconditional
ceasefire and then, inside a month, both delegations will be in Cairo raising issues with
the Egyptians," he said.
"We will be raising our concerns about demilitarisation
and preventing Hamas from rearming."
During the celebrations, several senior Hamas and Islamic
Jihad figures emerged onto the streets for the first time since the war began
for fear of being assassinated by Israel which had labelled them
"legitimate targets."
As well as rebuilding the battered enclave, senior Hamas
official Mahmud al-Zahar said the Islamist movement would continue "arming
itself and developing its resistance capacity."
- New talks 'within a month' -
And the statement referred to a "continuation of
indirect negotiations between the two sides on other matters within one month
of the ceasefire taking effect."
News of the reported deal came after weeks of Egyptian-led
efforts to end the violence which have resulted in several short-term
ceasefires, all of which broke down in the absence of agreement on a
longer-term truce.
The latest collapsed on August 19 as hostilities resumed,
killing more than 120 Palestinians and two Israelis, one a four-year-old child.
There had been no sign of any letup in the fighting earlier
on Tuesday, with 12 Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes and tank
shelling, among them two children.
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