© AFPThe sky is lit up after warplanes belonging to the Israeli army carried out airstrikes over Gaza City, early on August 21, 2020.
The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement says it has agreed to a Qatar-brokered ceasefire, which will put an end to nearly a month of Israeli aerial and ground attacks against the blockaded Gaza Strip.
In a statement released on Monday, the office of Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, announced the ceasefire, under which
the Tel Aviv regime would stop airstrikes and the resistance group would halt launching of incendiary balloons.
After talks with Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi, "an understanding was reached to rein in the latest escalation and end [Israeli] aggression against our people," it said.
The understanding, it added, would ease the way for implementation of projects "that will serve the people of Gaza, and alleviate the suffering amid the coronavirus wave."
Shortly after Hamas' statement, Israel's liaison agency to the Palestinian territories said
it would reopen the Gaza crossing, including to fuel deliveries, as well as the fishing zone to the full 15-nautical-mile limit.
The decisions were "subject to the continuation of the calm and the security stability," said the so-called Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territory (COGAT), adding that if Hamas failed to deliver, Israel would "act accordingly."
The Israeli army has bombed Gaza almost daily since August 6 in what it says is a response to the airborne incendiary devices and rockets launched from the blockaded coastal sliver into the occupied lands.
The fire balloons are widely seen as an attempt by Hamas to improve the terms of an informal truce, under which
Israel committed to easing its 13-year-old crippling siege of the Gaza Strip. So far, however, Israel has tightened the blockade, banned Palestinian fishermen from going to sea, and closed a key crossing with the territory, prompting the closure of Gaza's sole power plant for want of fuel.A Hamas source said there had been "a total halt" to balloon and other attacks against Israel in agreement with other Gaza-based resistance factions.
"Fuel supplies will return and the power station will be restarted from Tuesday," he noted.
The Qatari envoy brokered the truce after meetings with Gaza and Israeli officials over the past week.He praised the Hamas leadership for possessing "a high level of responsibility... taking into account the difficult circumstances and conditions that the residents of the Strip live in, especially in light of the spread of coronavirus in the Gaza Strip."
In exchange for the ceasefire, Emadi promised "the implementation of a number of projects that serve the people of the Gaza Strip and contribute to alleviating the effect of the years-long blockade."
He is expected to soon begin distributing the $30 million he brought into Gaza, which will go to purchasing fuel, paying civil servants and helping the poor.UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov emphasized that the truce allowed the world body to begin assisting Gaza deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
"I welcome the agreement to de-escalate tensions in and around Gaza. Ending the launching of incendiary devices and projectiles, restoring electricity will allow UN to focus on dealing with the COVID-19 crisis," he said.
Israel has launched three major wars against the enclave since 2008, killing thousands of Gazans each time and shattering the impoverished territory's already poor infrastructure.The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty in the Gaza Strip.
Israelites "Win By Deception",( that is what their religious teachings instruct); However, The World Community of Nations is complicit, what else explains the horrendous condition, in which Palestinians find themselves relegated to. Palestinians, especially the younger generations, where ever they are now, must physically march and or transport themselves, in large numbers, all who are fit and able, and assemble themselves as close to the borders of their rightful home-lands as possible, and then, without any weapons or armaments, peacefully march into and reclaim their Birthrights. The Israelites will fire upon and kill/wound some, have they not been slaughtering Palestinians for decades? ,but a massed determined multitude, would win. Some sympathetic World leaders would be forced to act, to protect and prevent slaughter, and they would. The United Nations would send a peacekeeping force. Finally, all Palestinians must realise, unless they take matters into their own hands, and become a major "Fact on the ground themselves", their cause will be lost for all time, the end, finished.Hordes of Middle Eastern migrants forced themselves into Europe, they suffered, but could not be stopped. If the ancient land of Palestine is to be saved for Palestinians, then Palestinians themselves will have to "act". This is the moment when Palestinians prove to the "World" of supporters and sympathisers, that their homeland is crucial to their continued and future existence. Amen, It Is Written.