Israel, Hamas agree on ceasefire in Gaza Strip – telam

Amid mounting international pressure, the Israeli government and the Palestinian movement Hamas agreed on Thursday to a ceasefire that has already come into effect, after 11 days of constant shelling and attacks, which so far killed 232 people in the region. Gaza Strip and 12 in Israel and represented the worst military escalation of the conflict since 2014.

“The (security) cabinet unanimously accepted the recommendation of security officials … to accept the Egyptian initiative for an unconditional bilateral ceasefire.”, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reported in a statement, quoted by the AFP news agency.

Soon after, the two Hamas, the political force that controls the interior of the strip, as well as Islamic Jihad, another party with an armed wing in that territory, confirmed the truce.a, which began to rule at 2 a.m. local Friday (8 p.m. Thursday in Argentina).

Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after 11 days of attacks and more than 240 dead

Although the Israeli government statement noted that the truce does not come with conditions, Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told Al Mayadeen news channel – linked to the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah – that they had received “guarantees that the Israeli aggression against the Al Aqsa Mosque and (the East Jerusalem neighborhood) Sheikh Jarrah will stop,” according to the Haaretz newspaper.

This point is relevant for the Palestinians because it is in these two places of Jerusalem that the whole escalation started at the beginning of the month.

The tension began to escalate when Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood resisted eviction orders issued by the authorities and ended up exploding when the Israeli police cracked down on and confronted thousands of Muslim worshipers praying in the area. esplanade of mosques. -one of the holy places of Islam, where Al Aqsa- is located during the month of Ramadan.

This not only sparked a wave of protests in Israel from the Palestinian minority, but also sparked a series of daily rocket launches from the Gaza Strip that struck parts of the south and center of the country, leaving 12 dead, including a child and a child, a soldier and 333 wounded.

Israel’s missile and artillery offensive against this small, completely enclosed territory of two million people, by contrast, has so far ended with 232 dead, including 65 children and 39 women. and 1,900 injured.according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian casualties and combatants.

In addition, the UN denounced that more than 90,000 people were left homeless because of the bombings and took refuge in their schools.

From another occupied Palestinian territory, the West Bank, where the internationally recognized Government Mahmoud Abbas has his seat, they celebrated the announcement of the truce, although they asked “not to forget Jerusalem”.

“Israel has no other way out than to stop its massacre, its aggression against the Palestinian people, we think they could opt for a unilateral ceasefire, because Israel, as always, tries to avoid to achieve a joint ceasefire.. It is good that the Palestinian people, more than 2 million people, can fall asleep tonight, knowing that they will have a brighter morning, but it is not enough ”, assured the Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyadh. al Maliki in a virtual message, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session on Israel and Palestine.

“The central theme at the origin of all these episodes is Jerusalem, we cannot forget Jerusalem”, he asked, quoted by the Sputnik news agency.

Rumors of an impending truce have multiplied in recent days with international pressure.

US President Joe on Wednesday Biden told Netanyahu he expected “major de-escalation en route to a ceasefire” and this Thursday was the first to celebrate the truce.

“I believe that Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live in security, calm and with the same level of freedom, prosperity and democracy. My government will continue to work through silent but relentless diplomacy to achieve this goal,” he said. said the President, of the White House, flanked by the Vice President, Kamala Harris.

So the British government has joined that he called for a “lasting” ceasefire, for which Egyptian President Abdelfatah al Sisi ordered delegations to be sent to Palestine and Israel to ensure the respect of the truce, the channel reported. Egyptian 1, cited by Sputnik.

In this direction, UN Secretary General Antnio Guterres also called for a commitment from both sides.

“I welcome the ceasefire between Gaza and Israel after 11 days of deadly hostilities. I call on all parties to respect the ceasefire,” he said.

At the time of the announcement of the truce and for the hour that followed, there was no rocket fire from the strip and no Israeli bombardments against that Palestinian territory. However, after a day that passed between constant attacks, the weather was still tight.

On Wednesday evening, several explosions rocked a commercial area in Gaza City, the central city of Deir al-Balah and the south of Khan Younis.

Early in the morning, residents inspected the rubble of at least five destroyed family homes in Khan Younis, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.

The IDF said it attacked the homes of three Hamas commanders in Khan Younis and also launched bombings in Rafah against “military infrastructure” and against a house in Gaza City where an arsenal was located. .

In Khan Younis, one of the Israeli attacks destroyed a two-story house and shrapnel hit another house and killed a woman, Ma’an reported.

Spokesmen for the hospital confirmed the woman’s death and said at least 10 other people were injured in the city in nighttime airstrikes.

Hours later, at least three other Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on two cars on a road north of the Strip, according to Ma’an.

The Palestinian health ministry reported five dead Thursday in attacks on Gaza.

Shortly after noon, Palestinian militiamen launched a new barrage of rockets at southern Israel after an eight-hour hiatus, the army reported, with no casualties being reported.