Below is the text of the Cease Fire Agreement between Israel and the Hamas in Gaza.

Here is text of the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza. The text was distributed at the news conference in Cairo with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr.

Understanding Regarding Ceasefire in Gaza Strip

1.      a. Israel should stop all hostilities in the Gaza Strip land, sea and air including incursions and targeting of individuals.

b. All Palestinian factions shall stop all hostilities from the Gaza Strip against Israel including rocket attacks and all attacks along the border.
c. Opening the crossings and facilitating the movements of people and transfer of goods and refraining from restricting residents’ free movements and targeting residents in border areas and procedures of implementation shall be dealt with after 24 hours from the start of the ceasefire.
d. Other matters as may be requested shall be addressed.

 

2. Implementation Mechanism:

a. Setting up the zero hour for the ceasefire understanding to enter into effect.
b. Egypt shall receive assurances from each party that the party commits to what was agreed upon.
c. Each party shall commit itself not to perform any acts that would breach this understanding. In case of any observations Egypt as the sponsor of this understanding shall be informed to follow up.

 

In a powerful op-ed, David Ingatius looks at the never-ending conflict that is the Israel-Palestinian relationship, and says yes, we should continue to pursue peace.  To not do so dooms both sides to more of the same.

An Israeli official was listening a few days ago to the familiar critique that Israel doesn’t have any strategy in Gaza, just periodic tactical assaults on Hamas. The official finally exploded: “That is our strategy. Don’t you understand? We don’t have any other choice except to punch our adversary in the face every few years.”

 

The most depressing aspect about the latest Gaza war is that it dramatizes this “no-exit” aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Wars recur every four or five years, but they never seem to settle anything. The Israelis pound the Palestinians until they accept a cease-fire, but it’s temporary. The emotional state of war continues.

 

The first time I watched this movie was 1982. Israel invaded Lebanon to stop the rockets that were then harassing northern Israel. The invasion was called “Operation Peace for Galilee,” and the Israeli army rolled all the way to Beirut. With their massive firepower, the Israelis assumed the Palestinians would cut and run, as Arab armies had in previous wars. But the Palestinians stood their ground.

 

It turned out the Israelis didn’t have a good endgame strategy in that war, any more than in the current one. In 1982, they accepted U.S. mediation that eventually forced the Palestine Liberation Organization to leave south Lebanon and Beirut. But this proved a mixed blessing, to put it charitably: The PLO guerrillas were replaced by more disciplined fighters from Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia created by the war.

 

Now it’s Hezbollah that poses the deadly rocket threat to northern Israel. Hezbollah suicide bombings forced Israel to invade Lebanon again in 1996 (“Operation Grapes of Wrath”), then to withdraw in frustration from Lebanon in 2000, then to attack Hezbollah once more in 2006 (“Operation Change of Direction”).

 

Gaza has been a similar exercise in frustration, with each cycle of violence buying a few years of quiet, followed by more war. The Israelis withdrew from Gaza in 2005, only to have Hamas fire about 12,000 rockets and mortars at the Jewish state. The Israel Defense Forces invaded in 2008 (“Operation Cast Lead”), and a cease-fire followed. But in the years since, Hamas and other militias in Gaza have fired more than 3,000 rockets and mortars, despite periodic cease-fires.

 

On Nov. 14, the Israelis got fed up and retaliated (“Operation Pillar of Defense”) They assassinated Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari, triggering 1,500 new Hamas rocket attacks, to which Israel responded by bombing more than 1,400 targets. The lopsided death toll (at last count, 130 Palestinians and four Israelis killed) led to some international criticism, which undercut some of the military benefits for Israel.

Is there any escape from this Israeli-Palestinian version of hell? The mark of an Israeli realist is to say, glumly, that this is as good as it gets. Few Israelis imagine that real peace is possible with adversaries who refuse even to accept Israel’s existence. The idealists who embraced the Oslo agreement of 1993 have died, moved away from Israel or given up.

 

Maybe it’s because of Thanksgiving Day, our national festival of optimism, but the idea that America should simply accept the inevitability of perpetual conflict on Israel’s borders seems like a betrayal of both sides. This kind of war grinds down the character of decent people, so Palestinians can cheer when they hear about rockets targeting the families in Tel Aviv, or Israel supporters can denounce newspapers for running a photograph of a sobbing Palestinian journalist cradling his lost child, or send e-mails headed, “Cue the Dead Baby.”

 

Acting as peacemaker in this conflict has been a thankless job for the United States. It begets enmity in Israel, which doesn’t want its closest ally to be “evenhanded” in this life-or-death conflict. And it begets cynicism and bitterness among Arabs, who have heard so many American promises, to so little effect, that many have concluded the process is a charade.

 

But at the beginning of Barack Obama’s final term, he needs to take up this burden once more, as he did when he came into office. He has worked hard to develop relationships with three important backers of Hamas — Egypt, Turkey and Qatar. Even the Israelis think that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government has acted constructively in the crisis, and they’d like to see Egypt have more control of Gaza.

 

A cease-fire in Gaza would provide a new platform for negotiation — weird, unstable, but worth the effort of trying a few more steps. What’s the risk? Another war? The threat of future missile attacks? That dismal picture is called the status quo.

davidignatius@washpost.com

Read more at Washington Post

A look at why Hezbollah is keeping out of the conflict between Gaza and Israel.

For a week, Israel and Hamas have engaged in a war in and around Gaza, one in which thousands of rockets and bombs have been expended, scores have died, and tens of thousands have been forced to take cover. But to the north in Lebanon, Hezbollah, the Islamic militia that rained destruction on Israel in a 2006 war, held its fire. Why?

 

The consensus among U.S. government analysts and academic experts is that Hezbollah, which has controlled the Lebanese government for more than four years, believes discretion is the better part of valor. As it has in the past, as in Israel's Cast Lead Operation against Hamas at the end of 2008, Hezbollah decided against creating a diversion that would have helped its like-minded but only sometime ally.

 

Roger Cressey, NBC News analyst and former deputy counterterrorism director for the National Security Council, notes that Hezbollah is now essentially the government in Lebanon and has different responsibilities, different agendas. "There has never been a correlation between events in Gaza and Hezbollah's strategic decision-making," says Cressey.

Read more at NBCnews.com

Over 500 missiles and rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza since the beginning of 2012.

Days and nights in southern Israel have been punctuated by a growing number of sirens and rocket explosions, with over 60 rockets striking Israeli cities and communities this past week. On Monday morning alone, 55 Qassam and mortar shells were fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. The rocket strikes damaged buildings, properties and a kibbutz petting zoo that is usually filled with children, but was empty because of the early morning hour.

 

Hamas and Islamic Jihad both claimed responsibility for the rocket strikes, which followed an Israeli Air Force airstrike on Sunday that targeted global jihad terrorists operating in Gaza.

 

For residents in Netivot, Sderot and the Gaza-border communities, the rocket routine is not a new one.

Read more at Algeminer.com

The attack on the Israeli-Gaza border which left 16 Egyptian soldiers dead has set back relations between Cairo and Gaza.

Up until Sunday, relations between Cairo and Gaza were beginning to look bright. Hamas politicians from Gaza were working diligently on improving ties with Egypt’s new Islamist government, cautiously elevating them from the political low of the Mubarak years.

Just two weeks ago Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh spoke of “unprecedented positivity” following his meeting with President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo. The Egyptian president promised to ease Palestinians’ travel restrictions, and the Rafah border crossing gradually began broadening its scope of activity.

Now the terror attack on the Egyptian border police outpost Sunday night, in which 16 Egyptians were killed, has brought everything back to square one.

Read more at Times of Israel

A terrorist attack on the Israeli-Egyptian-Gazan border has left 16 Egyptian soldiers dead and broke through the Israeli border, travelling a mile into Israel before being stopped by the Israeli Air Force.

The terrorists who smashed into Israel at the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Sunday night managed to drive about a mile into Israel, and were traveling at 70 kilometers an hour along the road toward Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, before the Israeli Air Force was able to get a clear shot and blow up their armored vehicle without risk to civilian traffic on the road or nearby.

That was one of the findings of the IDF’s initial investigation into what officials said Monday was a very carefully planned and complex terror attack.

The Shin Bet intelligence service on Friday gave the army a general warning of the danger of an attack at the Kerem Shalom crossing, two days before the terror cell — apparently comprised of Bedouin and other gunmen from the Sinai Peninsula, with close links to and possible participation of Gaza-based terrorists — launched the attack that left 16 Egyptian soldiers dead and penetrated the Israeli border.

Read more Times of Israel

As southern Israel was barraged by rockets for a fourth straight day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was hitting back "strongly and decisively," and its Iron Dome anti-missile defense system was intercepting many of the rockets coming from the Gaza Strip.

"The IDF is continuing to -- strongly and decisively -- attack the terrorists in the Gaza Strip," Netanyahu said Monday at the Knesset. "Whoever intends to harm our citizens, we will strike at him."

Israel has responded to the barrage of missiles with more than 30 attacks on rocket-launching sites and weapons facilities. At least 20 Palestinians, including two civilians, have been killed since the recent violence began. Several dozen Palestinian civilians, including several children, reportedly have been wounded in the strikes.

Hamas and Fatah are working on a unity government, with its headquarters in Gaza.

Fatah and Hamas have agreed that the next Palestinian government will be located in the Gaza Strip, and hence the next head of the Palestinian government will be from Gaza, an adviser to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Saturday.

Ahmed Yousef summarized the political program of all Palestinian factions which he said is the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with its capital in Jerusalem.

Yousef added that Hamas would support Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to receive full membership for Palestine at United Nations institutions.

Read more at Haaretz

Gaza militants have renewed rocket attacks on southern Israel in recent weeks, killing one Israeli this weekend and leading to school closings across the region.

Southern sector on high alert once more as Gaza-fired projectiles land near Beersheba, outskirts of Ashkelon, Sderot. Iron Dome system intercepts one Grad rocket; major cities in south suspend schools.

The fragile ceasefire with Gaza's militant groups was breached on Monday, as several rockets were fired at Israel following a relatively calm morning.

The Iron Dome defense system intercepted at least one Grad rocket fired at Beersheba. Shortly afterwards, a rocket was fired at the city of Sderot. Residents of the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council reported hearing an explosion within the council's limit.

No injuries or damages were reported and security forces are canvassing the area for the projectiles.

Read more at Ynet

Jeffrey Goldberg looks at the position of Israel following the Arab Spring and potential outcomes.

The Middle East is plunging toward crisis. The early promise of Tahrir Square has been supplanted by dismay that the Egyptian authorities -- such as they are -- allowed mobs to lay siege to the Israeli embassy in Cairo this past weekend.

Not long ago, Turkey and Israel were strategic partners. Now, relations between those two key U.S. allies are in ruins. When a recent United Nations report on the deadly confrontation between the Israeli military and a flotilla of Gaza-bound activists that sparked this crisis largely exonerated Israel, Turkey reacted by threatening to send warships to the eastern Mediterranean.

And the Jewish state faces a miserable month at the UN, where the Palestinians, who have refused to meet Israel at the negotiating table, are planning to seek recognition as an independent state, with potentially catastrophic consequences for both sides.

Read more at Business Week