| Submit your comments on this article |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Aid Flows Into Gaza After Israel-Hamas Truce |
| 2014-08-29 |
| [IsraelTimes] Vital humanitarian aid was arriving in Gazoo Thursday as residents began rebuilding their lives following a devastating 50-day war between Israel and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, that experts say left no winners. Millions in and around the war-torn coastal enclave were enjoying a second day of peace after the guns fell silent following a permanent ceasefire agreement, allowing people to begin putting their lives back together. The truce, which went into force on Tuesday evening, saw the warring sides agree to a "permanent" halt to seven weeks of bloodshed in a move hailed by Washington, the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... and top world diplomats. Under the deal, Israel agreed to immediately lift restrictions on fishing, allowing boats to work up to six nautical miles from the shore in a move which went into effect early on Wednesday. It also pledged to ease restrictions at the two crossings into Gazoo, Erez and Kerem Shalom, to allow the entry of goods, humanitarian aid and construction materials, in a move which began Thursday. Debate on crunch issues such as Hamas's demand for a port and an airport, and the release of prisoners, as well as Israel's calls to demilitarize Gazoo have been postponed for another month until the sides resume talks in Cairo. For now, the focus is catering for the immediate needs of the 1.8 million residents of the Gazoo Strip, nearly half a million of whom were forced to flee their homes because of the fighting. At the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing, a steady trickle of buses were arriving early in the day, most carrying commercial goods, although some were transporting aid, bearing the logo of the UN agency for Paleostinian refugees (UNRWA). Goods begin crossing "During the war we used to come and go, but we were all bringing aid," said a driver called Abu Amer. "Now I'm bringing goods for the shops in Gazoo," he told AFP as he watched his cargo of diapers being inspected. Other buses were carrying furniture, fruits, and non-perishable foodstuffs, as well as what looked like water tanks. But there was no sign of any construction materials being brought in. On Wednesday, more than 200 tons of aid from Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , Oman and Turkey trundled into Gazoo from Egypt, entering via the Rafah border crossing, an official at the frontier told AFP. A World Food Program (WFP) aid convoy arrived in Gazoo for the first time since 2007, also crossing from Egypt, and carrying enough food to last 150,000 people for five days, the Geneva-based agency said. Another line of trucks took in 150 tons of medicine and medical equipment from Saudi Arabia, and 45 tons of health supplies arrived from an Oman welfare organization. Turkey also sent humanitarian aid, officials said. Paleostinian officials were expected to meet their Israeli counterparts on Thursday to discuss procedures at the crossings, Raed Fattuh, head of the Paleostinian liaison committee told AFP on Wednesday. He said both Erez and Kerem Shalom would resume normal operations on Thursday in line with the norms that existed before the crisis began, with the sides to discuss the new procedures which are to be introduced as a result of the truce. Readying for Cairo Both Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement, the de facto authority in Gazoo, hailed the ceasefire as a victory. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas had laid down very clear conditions for halting its fire -- but had not managed to get any of its demands. "Hamas wanted a port and airport in Gazoo, the liberation of Paleostinian prisoners, the mediation of Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... and Turkey and the payment of salaries for its employees," he said late on Wednesday. "It got nothing." Ahead of a new round of talks in Cairo, at which such issues are to be debated, Israel was taking a firm stance. "There will be no port, no airport and no entry of materials that could be used to produce rockets or build tunnels," said deputy foreign minister Tzahi Hanegbi, a close Netanyahu associate. "That will be our position which we will present at the negotiations in Cairo." Israel has consistently linked Gazoo's crucial reconstruction with its demilitarization, with Netanyahu saying the rebuilding would go ahead -- "but only under our control." Hamas too claimed victory, saying it had "stood firm in the face of the arsenal of Zionist terrorism" and had caused Israel heavy losses -- a reference to the 64 soldiers killed in the fighting in Israel's biggest military toll since 2006. Israel launched Operation Protective Edge with |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #4 Mr. Patriot, I like the cut of your jib. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2014-08-29 14:13 |
| #3 I'm all for sending cement to Hamass. Stand its members in a bucket, pour in the cement, let it dry, and have them take a walk -- off the end of a boat. To make it even more humane, dump them in chin-deep water -- at low tide. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2014-08-29 12:50 |
| #2 ...cement. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2014-08-29 08:06 |
| #1 Vital humanitarian aid was arriving in Gazoo Replacement rockets etc... |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-08-29 02:53 |