[Marxism] Hamas and allies declare ceasefire, give Israel a week to leave the Gaza Strip

["Lüko Willms" <lueko.willms@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

from Al Jazeera International

> 
<http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/200911812363123039
3.html>

--------- full quote ----------------

Hamas and several allied Palestinian factions have announced a conditional, 
one-week ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, giving Israel seven days to pull out of 
the territory.

The move, following a meeting of the factions in Damascus, comes a day 
after Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire, ending its 22-day offensive in 
Gaza which has left at least 1,203 Palestinians dead. 

"We in 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 Marzuk, deputy leader of Hamas's political bureau, said in 
Damascus on Sunday.

Besides Hamas, Palestinian factions at the Damascus meeting included 
Islamic Jihad, Al Nidal, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine 
(PFLP) 
and al Saeqa.

Israeli response

Israel says it will not consider a timetable for withdrawing all of its forces 
from the Gaza Strip until Hamas and other groups halt their fire.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Sunday, Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military 
spokesperson, said: "I am sorry, Hamas will not give Israel a deadline to pull 
out its troops.

"We will pull out the troops if and when we will decide that a permanent safe 
and secure situation has arrived in our country - which has not [yet]. Since 
from the morning we were targeted by 16 rockets from Hamas.

----------------- end quote ------------------

  I think that is a very cute move by the Palestinian leaders. Today they have 
shown that they still can fire rockets into the territory of the state of 
Israel, 
so showing that Israel has not achieved its main objective, i.e. stopping those 
rockets flying, now they answer with an initiative which puts the Israeli 
military in a corner. 

  I was away this afternoon and was then watching the election results of the 
regional elections in Hesse, so I don't know really what came out of the big 
Vienna Congress dancing this afternoon in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. 

  At this moment follow the live transmission of a press conference of the 
European leaders in ISRAEL, to where they have been invited by the Israeli 
government, and they all look not very happy, on the contrary. One could get 
the impression that the conference did not achieve the wanted results of 
Egypt playing the prison guard for Israel. I will have to look up the other 
news, but want to send out this message first. 


Comradely yours, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------

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