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As Truce Holds, Dazed Gazans Get Down to Business As Truce Holds, Dazed Gazans Get to Work
(about 9 hours later)
GAZA — The banks reopened, the markets were crowded, workers began repairing downed electric lines and bulldozers cleared rubble blocking roads in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as an open-ended cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants took hold. JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Ismail Haniya, the Gaza-based political leader of Hamas, both declared a decisive victory on Wednesday as residents on both sides of the border grappled with the death and destruction wrought in a 50-day battle that ended in a limited cease-fire agreement the night before.
Life did not exactly return to normal, after a summer of more than 2,100 deaths and vast destruction. But many residents who were displaced by seven weeks of Israeli attacks returned to their homes, fishermen ventured into deeper waters again and brown-uniformed security officers spread out in border areas to make sure that no rogue rockets would be fired to threaten the fragile calm. Mr. Netanyahu asserted at a Tel Aviv news conference that “there is a great military accomplishment and a great diplomatic achievement” for Israel while Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian faction that dominates Gaza, had surrendered without winning “even one of the conditions it demanded.” Mr. Haniya, appearing in public for the first time since the operation began July 8, told a crowd of some 10,000 flag-waving supporters in a Gaza City square that his armed wing’s successes this summer were “multiple, multiple” times those of previous violent rounds with Israel in 2012 and 2008-9.
In the northern border town of Beit Hanoun, which was largely leveled in Israel’s ground incursion, a woman and two men arrived riding atop a truck full of mattresses and food parcels, then began moving their belongings into a three-story apartment building that was largely intact, though the windows were broken. But other residents of the town returned from more than a month of sheltering in United Nations schools to find only wreckage where their homes once stood. Yet in Israel, politicians and analysts greeted the cease-fire with skepticism and harshly criticized Mr. Netanyahu’s prosecution of the campaign, while many families who evacuated the communities near Gaza battered by rocket and mortar fire remained wary of returning.
“We are happy that the cease-fire is on, and killing is over,” said Mohammed Abu Ouda, 31. “We don’t know what we will do next. We will stay in the school until a solution is brought to us.” “As far as the rocket threat’s concerned, we’re still in the same place,” Ronit Minaker, spokesman for a larger border region, said on Israel Radio. “Exactly in the same place. The only difference between before the fighting and now is that now residents have a very great feeling of distrust.”
In Gaza, banks reopened, markets were crowded, bulldozers began to remove rubble blocking roads and fishermen ventured out to sea, seizing on the cease-fire deal’s return of the zone permitted by Israel to six nautical miles, as agreed in 2012, from three nautical miles since June. Brown-uniformed security forces spread out to the border areas to make sure that no rogue rockets would threaten the fragile calm.
Life did not exactly return to normal, but thousands of residents did return to their homes. Those sheltering in United Nations schools dropped from nearly 300,000 to 54,261 by Wednesday afternoon, though more were expected to spend the night after visiting their homes and finding them uninhabitable.
“We are happy that the cease-fire is on, and killing is over,” said Mohammed Abu Ouda, 31, as he surveyed the wreckage in Beit Hanoun, the northern border town largely leveled during Israel’s ground invasion. “We don’t know what we will do next. We will stay in the school until a solution is brought to us.”
What happens next was the crucial question being asked in Gaza, Israel and around the world after the announcement on Tuesday of a limited agreement to halt the hostilities and ease, but not eliminate, Israeli-imposed restrictions on fishing, travel and trade. The agreement, brokered by Egypt, calls for Israel to allow humanitarian aid and building materials through the border crossings it controls into Gaza. But it remained unclear who would oversee the reconstruction effort and monitor imported cement and concrete to allay Israeli concerns that it be used only for civilian purposes.What happens next was the crucial question being asked in Gaza, Israel and around the world after the announcement on Tuesday of a limited agreement to halt the hostilities and ease, but not eliminate, Israeli-imposed restrictions on fishing, travel and trade. The agreement, brokered by Egypt, calls for Israel to allow humanitarian aid and building materials through the border crossings it controls into Gaza. But it remained unclear who would oversee the reconstruction effort and monitor imported cement and concrete to allay Israeli concerns that it be used only for civilian purposes.
Discussion of the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict, along with demands by Hamas, the Islamist faction that dominates Gaza, for a seaport and airport in Gaza — and by Israel for the demilitarization of the territory — were put off for up to a month.Discussion of the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict, along with demands by Hamas, the Islamist faction that dominates Gaza, for a seaport and airport in Gaza — and by Israel for the demilitarization of the territory — were put off for up to a month.
“I don’t think that any declaration here is important, who won what,” Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security adviser, told reporters in an afternoon conference call Wednesday. “What’s important is what will happen in the future.” “I don’t think that any declaration here is important, who won what,” Yaakov Amidror, Mr. Netanyahu’s former national security adviser, told reporters in an afternoon conference call. “What’s important is what will happen in the future.”
In Israel, many residents of the southern communities whose lives were most disrupted by the fighting remained wary of the cease-fire, and did not rush back to the kibbutzim that were evacuated. Leaders of those communities and many political commentators were harshly critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday for ending a battle that had cost the lives of 64 soldiers and six civilians without achieving a decisive result. Overall, more than 2,100 Palestinians died in the conflict, most of them civilians, according to human rights groups. On the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and six others died.
Public attention turned to the north, where the Israeli military fired on two Syrian Army positions in the Golan Heights after an Israeli soldier was wounded by what it described as “errant fire from the internal fighting in Syria.” There were reports that Syrian rebels had taken control of the Quneitra crossing, the only gateway between Syria and Israel, which is normally in the hands of a United Nations peacekeeping force. The Israeli military said Wednesday it had struck 5,263 targets in Gaza, many with multiple bombs, missiles and shells. Palestinians estimate 10,800 buildings were demolished and more than 50,000 others damaged, including 277 schools, 270 mosques and 10 hospitals.
Mr. Netanyahu, who has not spoken publicly since the cease-fire was announced, visited an air force base on Wednesday to praise pilots and others involved in the military operation, which began with airstrikes July 8 and escalated to a ground incursion 10 days later, according to a statement circulated by his office. Mr. Netanyahu was scheduled to hold a news conference along with the country’s defense minister and army chief on Wednesday evening. Hamas and other militant groups fired 4,564 rockets and mortars, the Israeli military said, 3,641 of which exploded in its territory, while 735 were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
“You acted in a way that inspires awe and that is extraordinarily impressive,” Mr. Netanyahu told the troops, according to the statement. “The most important thing is that we have the tools to defend the state and attack our enemy.” “Hamas was seriously beaten,” Mr. Netanyahu said alongside his defense minister and military chief at the news conference. “We destroyed the tunnel systems which it built for years,” he added. “In addition, Hamas is diplomatically isolated.
But many analysts and others criticized Mr. Netanyahu’s leadership of the campaign, in which the Israeli military said it struck 5,263 targets in Gaza, while 4,564 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel. “Will we reach our goal of long-term quiet?” he asked rhetorically. “I think that it is still too early to tell, but I can say that the severe damage caused to Hamas and to the terror organizations, and our ability to prevent them from rearming themselves by controlling the borders, those will increase the chances for this goal’s implementation.”
Shimon Shiffer, a prominent columnist in the leading Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, wrote that “in a properly run country,” the prime minister would resign at this point, while Nahum Barnea, another respected Yediot voice, said Israelis had gotten “a seasoned spokesperson” for prime minister, rather than “a statesman who knows what he wants to achieve, someone who makes decisions and engages in a sincere and real dialogue with his public.” Noting that the United States had not destroyed Al Qaeda, Mr. Netanyahu warned that if Hamas resumes its attacks, “we’ll hit them seven times harder.”
Leaders from southern Israel, which bore the brunt of the daily barrages of rockets and mortars, were among the most vocal critics. Mr. Haniya, whose home in Gaza City’s Beach refugee camp was among the thousands hit by Israeli airstrikes — and whose young niece was among nearly 500 Palestinian children killed — did not mention the terms of the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, or the role that President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority might play in running or rebuilding Gaza. Mr. Abbas’s Palestine Liberation Organization reconciled with Hamas in April after a seven-year schism, but the unity government they formed in June has yet to take hold.
“Because it’s called a cease-fire and not a permanent agreement, it doesn’t allow us to feel any certainty or confidence with regard to the situation here in the area,” Ronit Minaker, the spokesman for the Eshkol Regional Council, which covers a 300-square-mile area near Gaza, said on Israel Radio. “As far as the rocket threat’s concerned, we’re still in the same place. Exactly in the same place. The only difference between before the fighting and now is that now residents have a very great feeling of distrust.” As Mr. Haniya spoke, about two dozen masked militants were on display, standing on several Israeli flags. He likened civilians who were killed in their homes to the fighters who took their campaign to the underground tunnels — all part of the so-called “resistance” to Israel.
Tzachi Hanegbi, the deputy foreign minister, defended Mr. Netanyahu in a separate radio interview, declaring that “Israel won — Hamas was defeated.” “The resistance has developed over the past eight years,” said Mr. Haniya, who stepped down as Hamas prime minister as the unity government was sworn in. “While we were in the government, we legitimized the weapons of resistance, we supported it logistically, and we cracked down on the collaborators who stabbed the resistance in the back.
Mr. Hanegbi, a Netanyahu ally from the prime minister’s Likud Party, added: “The only goal that Hamas had, to lift the siege, was not achieved. There will be no seaport, no airport, no materials will enter Gaza that can be used to build rockets or tunnels. That is the Israeli position, and will be presented as soon as negotiations resume.” “This war was unprecedented. Words can’t describe this victory.”