Ceasefire agreement between Palestinian - Israel Update

26 Aug 2014 - According to Palestinian sources a ceasefire agreement has been reached between Palestinian factions and Israel, after several weeks of indirect negotiations in Cairo.

Based on the information received by PNN, the ceasefire will be announced today at 6 p.m., Mousa Abu Marzouk and Ismail Haniyeh, senior leaders of Hamas, have confirmed this information.

Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of Hamas, said that they are very close to reaching an understanding which will be a reward for the steadfastness of the people in Gaza and the resilience of the Palestinian fighters. He added that Abu Marzouk and he are waiting for the final draft of the agreement.

The sources informed that Egypt had obtained the approval of the two delegations to declare a permanent ceasefire this evening.

The agreement will be based on the previous 2012 agreements, which includes the end of all persecution and assassination of Palestinian leaders and activists by Israel.

It would also include an agreement to open all crossings, including the movement of goods, construction materials, fuel, gas and individuals. Additionally, the fishing zone will be extended to 12 nautical miles.

Both sides will meet again in a month to discuss the specific details.

The sources told PNN that the Palestinian President Mahmoud, Abbas, will address the ceasefire agreement in his speech at the opening meeting of the Palestinian leadership.

Islamic Jihad also confirmed this information and they said that the permanent truce will be announces in a few hours. Khalid al-Batsh, a senior official of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said that the agreement recognizes their demands.

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Half the members of the Israeli Political-Security Cabinet oppose the Israeli ceasefire agreement

27 Aug 2014 - Half the members of the Israeli Political-Security Cabinet oppose the ceasefire agreement for the Gaza Strip.

According to the Israeli National Radio, four members of the Cabinet oppose the ceasefire, Avigdor Lieberman (Foreign Minister), Naftali Bennett (Industry, Trade and Labor Minister), Gilad Erdan (Home Front Defense Minister) and Yitzhak Aharonovich (Internal Security Minister).

 
Naftali Bennett requested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold a session of the Cabinet in order to discuss the truce agreement. Netanyahu refused to do so as he had already obtained the approval of the Attorney General of Israel, Yehuda Weinstein, to make the decision to accept the ceasefire agreement without previously consulting the Israeli Political-Security Cabinet.

The Justice Minister Tzipi Livni also criticized the ceasefire agreement saying “It must include the basis for the disarmament of the Strip, to prevent the entry of arms and the growth of the Palestinian resistance. There should be an effective monitoring mechanism”.

Several mayors and regional councils of the areas near Gaza showed disappointment over the agreement as they fear more attacks in the coming months. 

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Statement by President Mahmoud Abbas on the Gaza ceasefire

 27 Aug 2014 - "Today marks 51 days of the barbaric aggression that Israel carried out and continues to carry out against our people in the Gaza Strip. During this period, the number of martyrs rose up to more than 2000, and the number of injured to more than 11,000, with tens of thousands of houses destroyed. 
Unfortunately, until this moment, the attack and the aggression continues indiscriminately and in most cases against innocents and civilians who are the primary victims of this aggression. As everyone knows, scores of families, probably more than sixty, were completely eliminated.

 Therefore, it was necessary to exert all efforts, possible and impossible, towards stopping the fighting, particularly after the Israelis withdrew from the negotiations and our delegation returned and we continued our intensive efforts to resume negotiations again. 

Indeed, we were able today, as we speak, to announce our acceptance of the Egyptian cease-fire initiative, a cease-fire that runs in tandem with providing the Strip with humanitarian, medical, food, and construction aid needed. After that, there will be talks about all the demands that will be put on the table.  

The efforts succeeded now, only few minutes before arriving here, in returning to negotiations. We said that at seven, that is now, there will be a full cessation of fighting. Both delegations will return to Cairo as soon as possible to resume these efforts.

We reiterate our full appreciation for Egypt for all the efforts it exerted with us for a long time to reach a formula that is satisfactory to all parties. We also reiterate that Qatar has also contributed to this end. It is also useful to mention that John Kerry has exerted efforts and was on constant contact with us to achieve this cease-fire. We extend our thanks to all the parties that exerted these efforts as well as to the United Nations that will immediately send needed supplies to Gaza Strip, because the situation there is catastrophic and unimaginable. 

Ending the fighting was the main issue that we discussed with Hamas leadership in Doha. We also discussed other important issues, namely, consolidating and empowering the national reconciliation to allow the national consensus government from fulfilling its duties. This needs time and effort, but it is one of the objectives that we sought to achieve ever since we talked about reconciliation and forming a national consensus government.

During this period of time, which lasted for more than 50 days, we exerted all efforts to provide our people with the supplies they need from here. This applied also to all organizations and parties, which is extremely good in the sense of the people sympathizing with the catastrophe that befell their brothers. We cannot deny the contributions of the countries who rushed to send supplies and aid to our people in Gaza Strip. But all of this is not enough, and it is necessary that all needed supplies flow into the Strip to allow the people to live, to have drinking water, to electricity, to education since all schools are currently occupied by families, and the same applies to hospitals, that is of course if they were not destroyed, since the destruction included schools, hospitals, and places of worship. All of this requires quick actions to allow the healing of the big wound of our people in Gaza Strip.

There is another topic that we will address, namely: what next? Gaza Strip alone suffered from three wars in 2008-2009, 2012, and 2014. Should we expect another war after a year or two? Until when will the cause remain unresolved? We will put forward our vision to the leadership and will continue consultations thereof with our brothers and the international community. However, the vision should be very clear, very specific, and understood from A-Z, because engaging in vague negotiations is something we cannot continue to do."