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Gaza ceasefire enters second day as delegations prepare for Cairo talks Gaza ceasefire enters second day as delegations prepare for Cairo talks
(about 2 hours later)
A ceasefire in the Gaza Strip has entered a second day as Israeli and Palestinian delegations prepare for talks in Cairo to try to extend the 72-hour truce. Formal negotiations to secure a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip are expected to begin in Cairo on Wednesday, as a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas enters a second day.
The ceasefire, which came into effect on Tuesday, has brought a temporary halt to a month of fighting during which 1,875 Palestinians and 67 Israelis were killed. Hamas is officially banned from political activity in Egypt, but additional Palestinian negotiators, including the Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, were allowed into Cairo late on Tuesday night, bolstering a joint delegation that contains members of Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
Delegations are now ready for what are expected to be tough talks aimed at securing a permanent ceasefire after the three-day window closes. Early on Wednesday morning, the Palestinian team members were waiting in their hotel in Cairo's eastern suburbs to hear the results of Monday's negotiations between Egyptian intelligence officials, who are mediating the talks, and Israeli delegates. More indirect talks were expected to begin later in the day.
Officials on both sides confirmed they were sending small teams to Cairo, but they bring conflicting demands. The Palestinians insist that Israel end its eight-year blockade of Gaza and open border crossings, while Israel wants Gaza fully demilitarised. Each side brings competing and potentially irreconcilable demands to the table. The Palestinian delegation primarily seeks an end to the eight-year Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza, while Israel wants Hamas to disarm, a concession the group appears unwilling to make. "They can't get that," Hamas's lead negotiator in Cairo, Moussa Abu Marzouk, told the New York Times on Tuesday.
In a BBC interview the US secretary of state, John Kerry, called for a sustained ceasefire, but stressed that the crucial wider issues will need to be addressed. Hamas's refusal to reign in its military wing, the Qassam brigades, makes an end to the blockade less likely. The group is unlikely, however, to have joined the negotiations without first obtaining assurances that concessions would be made, according to a Cairo-based diplomat familiar with the Hamas's thinking.
"How are we going to make peace? How are we going to eliminate these rockets? How are we going to demilitarise and move towards a different future?" he asked. "I don't think they would have changed position at this point when they've now lost so many lives and Gaza is wrecked," the diplomat said. "They first had talks with the Egyptians. They might have put their preconditions forward to the Egyptians … and maybe the Egyptians agreed to some of them."
On the first day of the truce in Gaza City, people came out in large numbers, children played on the street and some shops reopened for the first time in days. Others ventured home only to find utter devastation. Some of the worst is near the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which was flattened in an Israeli assault that began on Friday. Egypt's interests are seen as more aligned with Israel's than the Palestinians.
A poll published by Haaretz on Wednesday said a majority of Israelis thought nobody had won the conflict in Gaza. In Gaza, civilians continued to return to their bombed-out homes, taking advantage of the longest lull in the conflict so far. Spokesmen for both sides claimed victory, perhaps indicating a desire to back out of the conflict while saving face.
The new ceasefire, announced by Egypt late on Monday, is the longest lull since the fighting began. Israel has withdrawn its troops, ending the ground operation that began on 17 July aimed at destroying Hamas's tunnels. "Netanyahu has failed 100% in Gaza," a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, told the group's TV channel.
Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said troops would respond to any violations of the truce. Israeli opinion polls showed the Israeli public, though supportive of the war, is undecided about whether there has been a winner.
The US and the UN have welcomed the truce, saying the onus was on Hamas to keep its part of the deal. Israeli military leaders were keen to stress their victory, even as their own returning soldiers criticised the decision to pull them back from Gaza. "The IDF has won big," said Lt Col Ori Schechter, adeputy brigade commander.
Israel has been subject to increasingly harsh criticism over civilian casualties in Gaza. "The job of soldiers is to come out frustrated from battle. Soldiers should never be happy to come out of battle and be dancing and saying, 'Walla, it's good that you're bringing us home.' Guys, stop this talk of defeat. We weren't defeated. We won big in every sense."
A British parliamentary committee report also said on Wednesday that excessive Israeli restrictions on Palestinian territories cannot be justified on the grounds that they protect the Jewish state. According to the Palestinian health ministry, 1875 Palestinians have been killed during the conflict, including 430 children. At least 64 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza, and three civilians in Israel.
The Israeli army says it destroyed 32 cross-border tunnels, struck nearly 4,800 targets and killed 900 Palestinian "terrorists".
The Palestinian health ministry said 1,875 Palestinians had been killed during the conflict, including 430 children. It said 9,567 people had been wounded, including 2,878 children.
The deputy economy minister, Taysir Amro, said the 29-day war had caused total damage of up to $6bn.