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UPDATING 1:15 pm EDT:The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reports that Israel has begun a "partial withdrawal" of ground troops from Gaza.
Hamas and its allies today declared a one-week end to its bombardment of Israeli villages, one day after Israel declared a truce in the nearly month-long conflict that has killed more than a thousand people, most of them Palestinian. The Israeli government said its objective of weaking Hamas' ability to attack Israel had largely been achieved. Hamas said it was giving Israel a chance to withdraw its troops and open border crossings to allow the delivery of food and other essential goods. Israel is demanding an end to weapons smuggling as a condition for opening its borders, and previously said that it would keep troops in Gaza for the time being.
Meanwhile, international leaders are trying to ensure that the truce holds by sending in humanitarian aid and looking for ways to police the border crossings. According to an Associated Press article, Egypt is oganizing a summit meeting on humanitarian aid, and England has already pledged $29 million to help victims of the violence rebuild their homes and lives. Israel also has a humanitarian aid program in Gaza, according to the Prime Minister's website.
As BlogHer CE Jill Miller Zimon noted on her blog, Writes Like She Talks, the announcements from Israel and Hamas come after days of rumors. She cautioned:
Those international forces are critical but remember, UNIFIL[the international peacekeeping force in Lebanon] has not been well-respected much of the time.
Initially, Hamas rejected the Israeli cease-fire and criticized Israel for taking unilateral action instead of negotiating a deal with Hamas to end the fighting. Egypt, which brokered the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that expired last November, has been trying to forge a new truce for the last three weeks. In the hours immediately after Israel announced it would cease hostilities, Hamas fired 17 rockets into villages in southern Israel, and Israel retaliated with two air strikes against what the Israel government described as "rocket-launching squads." Since then, the violence seems to have mostly stopped.
Gazan medical officials told Reuters that the 22-day-old conflict has killed more than 1300 Palestinians, "including some 700 civilians." The New York Times reports that 13 Israelis also died.The BBC has images of the devastation.
The scale of the violence and destruction has led to widespread criticism of Israel, including protests within Israel and around the world. For example, there is is this extraordinary statement by British MP Gerald Kaufman, who said he was raised as "an Orthodox Jew and a Zionist" whose family was victimized by the Holocaust:
The current Israeli Government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt among gentiles
over the slaughter of Jews in the holocaust as justification for their
murder of Palestinians. The implication is that Jewish lives are
precious, but the lives of Palestinians do not count.
Kaufman argues that both his government and Israel have to reverse their policies of refusing to negotiate directly with Hamas.
At Global Voices, Gilad Lotan notes that pro-Israeli bloggers accuse the media of ignoring the efforts that the Israeli Defense Force has made to minimize casualities by issuing warning leaflets and precise targetting. The Guardin reports that there was widespread support for the offensive within Israel from citizens made weary and frightened by years of Hamas rocket attacks. Now, some Israelis fear that Israel might be ending the fight too soon, while others hope the truce will hold.
As GVO's Ayesha Saldanha reported yesterday, Gazans had been hard-pressed to escape the violence:
In this roundup of blogs from Gaza, we hear in detail about the attacks on Al Quds hospital
in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City from an Australian
activist who was in it at the time, and an Italian activist describes a
man lying injured in hospital, unaware that his daughter has been
brought there too – in pieces.
Of course, independent reporting has been complicated by Israeli-imposedrestrictions on news organizations. The international press freedom organization, Reporters Without Borders, has spearheaded a protest by news organizations:
In view of the scale of the military operations
and the repercussion they are having throughout the world, we believe
the Israeli government’s decision to exclude the press from the Gaza
Strip is untenable and dangerous.
It is likely that media access will improve if the cease-fire holds.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is serving as a special
Middle East envoy, told reporters that revitalizing the
