Israel and Hamas began observing an unconditional, 72-hour humanitarian truce Friday morning, a cease-fire that diplomats from the United States and the United Nations announced Thursday that could potentially pave the way for an end to the 24-day-old conflict.
In a joint statement, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said both sides in the conflict are sending delegations to Cairo for negotiations aimed at reaching a lasting cease-fire.
During the 72-hour respite, which began at 1 a.m. EDT Friday, Israel will not withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip, a demand Hamas had previously made as a prerequisite to peace talks.
“This humanitarian ceasefire will commence at 8 am local time on Friday, August 1, 2014. It will last for a period of 72 hours unless extended. During this time the forces on the ground will remain in place,” the statement read.
A Hamas spokesman said Thursday that the Palestinian militant group, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, will honor the cease-fire as long as Israel does.
“As a response to the United Nations’ request and in consideration of our people’s situation, the Palestinian resistance factions have agreed to a humanitarian and mutual calm for 72 hours, starting from 8 a.m. tomorrow, as long as the other party is committed to it,” Sami Abu Zuhri said. “All the Palestinian factions have a unified attitude toward the issue in this regard.”
Earlier Thursday, Abu Zuhri had said that Palestinian factions, including Hamas, would head to Cairo as early as Friday for peace talks if the Israelis agreed to a cease-fire.
Qatar and Turkey played the key role as intermediator with Hamas, according to U.S. officials. Kerry met with the foreign ministers of both Muslim nations Saturday in a clear bid to make a cease-fire deal more appealing to Hamas.
Jeffrey Feltman, the U.N. undersecretary general for political affairs, said that although Israel had made no initial public statement on the cease-fire, “we have received assurances from all parties” that they will respect the pause. It was his understanding, Feltman told CNN, that “Israeli forces will stay where they are. What we want to see happen is for all fighting between the two sides to stop” to allow humanitarian aid deliveries, the gathering and burying of bodies, and a cessation of Palestinian shelling in Israel.
Kerry said both sides had agreed that during the pause, “neither side will advance beyond its current locations.”
Although the three-day truce represents the biggest step toward ending the conflict, many obstacles remain.
Hamas believes it has the upper hand because its fighters have exacted a huge toll — by Israel’s standards — on the Jewish state’s soldiers and citizens. Hamas wants its core demands met before it can agree to a durable truce. That includes Israel and Egypt lifting an economic blockade of Gaza, the opening of border crossings and the release of hundreds of Hamas members held in Israeli jails. It also wants Israeli forces to withdraw from Gaza.
Israel is unlikely to pull out its troops or accept a lasting cease-fire before all of Hamas’s tunnel networks are destroyed. The tunnels, through which Hamas militants have attempted to infiltrate Israel, are the biggest concern for Israel and have been a key stumbling block in previous attempts at a cease-fire.
Kerry stressed Thursday that Israel may continue what he called defensive destruction of tunnels over the next three days.
U.S. officials said the truce follows the outlines of a deal Kerry tried to seal a week ago in Egypt. Negotiations to follow up on the 72-hour pause on hostilities will begin as soon as Friday in Egypt.
Source- The Washington Post
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