Finally Peace in GAZA

A long term cease fire has been agreed between the Israel and Palestine in Gaza after 50 dreadful days of war, almost 7 weeks of fighting, killing more than 2200 Palestinians and injuring more than 11000 lives.

The numbers of civilians displaced in GAZA were 100,000 plus as per UN, but the Palestine Centre for Human Rights reported that more than 540,000 people were displaced from their homes in GAZA.

Israel and Palestine have agreed to the long term cease fire sponsored by the Egyptians which came into effect at 16:00 GMT Cairo time.

This is what the President of Palestine had to say:

“We have responded to the Egyptian proposal for a complete and comprehensive cease-fire, which starts at 19:00 Cairo time, there will be a complete stop in fighting.”

Reconstruction of GAZA

As per few media reports Gaza will host a new sea port, Airport and will get assistance in development of the country. The Israelis ease the blockade on Gaza including assistance humanitarian aids and materials of reconstruction.

Israel also accepted to open border crossings’ as well as to increase the fishing coast line of Gaza from 3 to 6 nautical miles in the Mediterranean.

The foreign minister of Egypt made following statement:

“The two sides will abide by the cease-fire without a The two sides will abide by the cease-fire without a time limit. The deal includes as well the continuation of indirect talks between the two sides here in Egypt to tackle other areas of mutual interest and concerns.”

Both countries will return to Cairo after a month to discuss about the new projects as well as peace related matters.

Celebration of Victory in Gaza

Since the ceasefire news spread, HAMAS invited tens of thousands of Gazan’s to march on the streets, sing patriotic and victory songs.

Even though this ceasefire was the same like after the war in Israel back in 2012, people still celebrated this all over Gaza.

Gaza was filled with people on the streets, religious prayers from the mosques, people dancing after Sami Abu Zahri, Hamas spokesman said during the conference.

“We are here today to declare the victory of the resistance, the victory of Gaza, with the help of God, and the steadfastness of our people and the noble resistance; we achieved some of our instantaneous demands out of this battle. We become closer to Jerusalem and our Palestinian lands.“

And here is what one of the Citizen of Gaza had to tell about the celebration:

“We have mixed feelings. We are in pain for the losses but we are also proud we fought this war alone and we were not broken.”

Disappointment and Criticism in Israel

Government of Benjamin Netanyahu is now facing heavy criticism from different Israeli communities who say that the Israeli failed to stop “Gaza Militants”.

However many Ministers in Netanyahu’s Govt. didn’t like the ceasefire and wanted to continue the war. Even though, Netanyahu didn’t put the ceasefire to a vote in his security Cabinet.

Uzi Landau, Israeli’s Tourism minister, criticised the government during a radio talk by saying “Wanting peace at any Price” which created a buzz among the groups present in the country.

Some Israelis also said that – They didn’t see a bright future, taking into account, number of times Israeli and Palestinians have relapsed in a conflict.

Here’s what few Citizens of Israel had to tell –

Maya Naveh, from the city of Modiin said -

In recent years, we’ve been having these kinds of attacks on average every two years, the area is like dry thistles — you just need to throw a match, and everything is ablaze. So I am not very optimistic about the future.

A Top Israeli officer with a condition of anonymity said –

In the end, Israel had two alternatives: either to occupy Gaza and destroy Hamas or to go to a ceasefire, once we decided not to occupy Gaza, we pushed for the same conditions that led to the end of hostilities in 2012.

Mark Regev, Israeli Govt. spokesperson said –

We hope that this time, the ceasefire will stick, I think now, as the dust will begin to clear, many people will be asking: Why is it that today Hamas accepted the very same Egyptian framework that it rejected a month ago? Ultimately, so much bloodshed could have been avoided.

Israel also claimed that the tunnels used by the HAMAS for import-export of weapons used to attack Israeli civilians, was destroyed by its army operations.

As per the Israeli Military, Israel launched 5000 air strikes on GAZA , while resistance in GAZA, they fired almost 4000 rockets as well as mortars with the help of HAMAS as well.

The UN reports also shows us that 70% of those who were killed were Palestinian civilians, 67 Israelis, where 64 of them were soldiers, have also been killed during these 50 days.