statism watch

Ian Black, Nick Watt, The Guardian
January 19, 2009

Mubarak calls summit to secure end of fighting, death toll tops 1,300 as UN humanitarian team goes in

Hamas followed Israel into agreeing to a fragile ceasefire yesterday, ending three weeks of heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip, as Arab and European leaders scrambled to agree lasting arrangements to prevent a new outbreak of hostilities.

The Palestinian Islamist movement said it would give Israel a week to withdraw its troops and tanks from the territory, but Israel retorted that it would decide when to leave. “The operation is not over,” said a military spokeswoman. “This is only a holding of fire.”

Seventeen rockets were fired into Israel, three of them after the Hamas statement. But Israeli army officials confirmed last night that some ground forces had started to pull out, while the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said: “We are interested in quitting the Gaza Strip at the greatest possible speed.”

Israel’s ceasefire, which came into effect at midnight on Saturday, was followed yesterday afternoon by the announcement from Hamas that it and other factions would follow suit. “The Palestinian resistance movements announce a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and demand that enemy forces withdraw in a week and open all the border crossings to permit the entry of humanitarian aid and basic goods,” Mussa Abu Marzouk, deputy leader of Hamas’s political bureau, said in Damascus.

With the Palestinian death toll standing at more than 1,300, and rising as more bodies are found under the Gaza rubble, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said he was sending a humanitarian needs assessment team to compile a report within 10 days.

News of the ceasefire galvanised international diplomatic activity. The Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, the chief Arab mediator, called a brief summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. “We must secure the ceasefire and in the next phase make certain that Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza, the crossings are reopened and the siege is lifted,” he said.

Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, announced a tripling of UK humanitarian aid to Gaza, pledging an additional £20m. He also criticised Israel for using excessive force. “We are yet to discover the full scale of the appalling suffering. But what is already clear is that too many innocent civilians, including hundreds of children, have been killed.”

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been working closely with the Egyptian president , said: “Israel should state immediately and clearly that if rocket fire will stop, the Israeli army will leave Gaza.”

Jordan’s King Abdullah, who like Mubarak has a peace treaty with Israel, said it was vital for the EU to coordinate with the incoming administration in the US to think of the “day after”.

“We need to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem immediately,” Abdullah said. “If we don’t do that, it will only be a matter of time before many world leaders will be meeting again and calling for a ceasefire in this region.” It was urgent to keep alive the Arab peace initiative offering Israel recognition if a Palestinian state were created, he added.

A spokeswoman for US president-elect Barack Obama said he welcomed the truce and would say more about the situation in Gaza after his inauguration tomorrow.

After an hour of round-table talks and a chaotic press conference, Brown, Sarkozy, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, and Mirek Topolánek, prime minister of the Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency, flew to Tel Aviv to meet Olmert, who expressed “deep remorse” last night for civilian casualties in Gaza.

Two crucial questions have to be settled if the ceasefire is to be followed by a return to calm. The first is how to stop weapons smuggling across the Egyptian border to Gaza’s Hamas rulers. Linked to that is the Hamas demand that the blockade of the coastal strip be lifted.

Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, said the best way to stop smuggling through tunnels under the border was by opening Gaza’s crossing points with Israel to allow in commercial goods.

Source | See Also: Israel declares ceasefire | Unusually Large U.S. Weapons Shipment to Israel | Video shows proof of phosphorous bombs in Gaza | Aid destroyed as UN’s Gaza HQ hit by Israeli fire | Protests over Israel’s Gaza offensive held in Canadian, world cities | Israel ignores ceasefire plea, pounds Gaza | UN relief agency halts aid to Gaza, citing Israeli attacks on staff | Rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel | Israel is on its way to reoccupying all of the Gaza Strip | Israeli shelling kills dozens at UN school in Gaza | Tanks, rockets, death and terror: Gazan civilian catastrophe unfolding | They hate us for our bombs | Israeli army set for invasion | Food, medicine, fuel needed in Gaza, agencies warn | Gaza relief boat carrying former Congresswoman rammed by Israelis | Worldwide protests urge end to attacks on Gaza

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