Truce holding in Gaza raises hopes for negotiations
Jerusalem (AsiaNews/Agencies) - A situation of relative calm has come to Gaza after the UN Security Council called for an "immediate and unconditional humanitarian ceasefire" in the territory.
Since last night, Israel has not carried out any airstrikes. Although it continues to seek and destroy the tunnels built by Hamas, it is not responding to sporadic rocket fire by Islamists.
So far 1,030 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 45 Israelis have died.
An emergency session of the UN Security Council backed a statement from Rwanda calling for a "durable" truce based on an Egyptian initiative over the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr "and beyond".
The statement emphasised that "civilian and humanitarian facilities, including those of the UN, must be respected and protected".
The reference is to a UNRWA-run school that was hit on Thursday by the Israelis, in which at least 15 people died.
Israel's military continues to deny responsibility for the deaths saying that aerial footage proved that shelter's courtyard was empty at the time the mortar was fired.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that operates the school has called for a full investigation.
The fragile truce in place, if it holds, provides some hope for diplomacy, especially for Egyptian mediation.
Like the UN, President Barack Obama also called for an immediate, unconditional humanitarian ceasefire in a phone call to Mr Netanyahu on Sunday.
According to Israeli and American sources, Obama said that a long-term solution would have to allow "Palestinians in Gaza to lead normal lives" and "must ensure the disarmament of terrorist groups and the demilitarisation of Gaza".
Meanwhile, the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas is trying to get back into picture. Last night he left for Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah, who has expressed full support for the Egyptian plan.
However, for Hamas, "to lead a normal life" implies the end of the blockade of the Gaza Strip by the Israelis and the reopening of the border with Egypt.
For the Islamist movement, which reiterated its conditions several times, the latter must be accepted in order to justify the civilian bloodshed endured so far and recover standing in the territory. In recent months, its popularity had in fact slipped as a result of the worsening economic crisis, which even Qatar's aid could not stop.
However, it was unlikely to accept a demilitarisation of the strip, i.e. its own disarmament.
Interestingly, in this regard, a senior US intelligence official warned that destroying Hamas would create a worse situation.
Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the outgoing head of the Defence Intelligence Agency, told the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado that destroying Hamas would leave a vacuum that would be filled by even more extremist groups, like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
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