AFTER days of empty streets and shuttered shops, Gaza City sprang back to life on Thursday during a fragile UN-negotiated humanitarian truce between Hamas and Israel to halt cross-border fire. 
 
The Islamist movement and Israel began observing the five-hour ceasefire at 0700 GMT, after 10 days of violence that has killed at least 230 Palestinians and one Israeli.

And hours later the ceasefire appeared to be holding despite reports that three mortar rounds fired from Gaza hit southern Israel.

The people of Gaza City immediately took advantage, taking to the streets in their cars and forcing police to try to negotiate the traffic jams that suddenly formed.

And outside banks in the city, crowds of hundreds of people massed on ATMs, eager to withdraw money to buy supplies before the five-hour truce ended.

“I’ve been borrowing money from people to get by, and now I’m going to be able to pay them back,” said Abdul Qassam Ataneh, waiting outside a branch of the Bank of Palestine.

“The truce is a chance for people to get out of their homes and get money and supplies.

“Ramadan comes with a lot of expenses,” he added, in reference to the ongoing Muslim month of fasting.

But two and a half hours into the truce, three mortar rounds were fired from Gaza into the southern Israeli region of Eshkol, the Israeli military said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility from militants in Gaza.

Both sides are working towards another ceasefire plan, with an Israeli official telling AFP that both sides have agreed to another ceasefire beginning at 0300 GMT.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said that Israel and Hamas “have agreed upon a ceasefire that will begin at 6:00am tomorrow”.jjm-hmw/jad/bpz

Before the mortar attack, Mohamed Nasr said he was happy with the brief truce, but wished the hours were longer.

“It’s not enough. People need to go out and get supplies and to get their belongings. It should have been from 7am until dusk,” he told AFP.

“We’ve been stuck in our houses during this war, because of the violence. It’s like living under curfew.”

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/fivehour-cease-fire-on-the-gaza-stri...

Hamas is merely symptom of the brutal occupation.

A slightly different perspective:

Ilan Pappe - Israel’s incremental genocide in the Gaza ghetto


Quote:


Also, this is more a thinking globally thread - moved.

bogarde73 wrote on Jul 20^th, 2014 at 3:08pm:


No, that is a guy called Mahdi having a tantrum.

bogarde73 wrote on Jul 20^th, 2014 at 2:54pm:


The killing of Jews is all Hamas is interested in.
The sooner the handwringers and apologists come to terms with this simple fact the better.

Grendel wrote on Jul 20^th, 2014 at 5:12pm:



A bit like people who believe using a large, bold font makes their lies any more true.

Ps.
I didn't use bold, I did use underline though...
For the purpose it was created. 

If your eyes feel offended you could always close them.

In the words of Mark Twain...



Hope that's big enough to avoid missing it, and small enough so your eyes aren't offended.

ps.  Anytime you feel capable of addressing the actual topic... go right ahead. I did. 

war, aggression, firing guns, rpg's. 

its addictive. whats the alternative for a palestinian in the camp.
the excitement of opening their red cross rations?

Hamas are never going to stop. what would they do?
go and work at the local woolies. those hot heads probably love all the fuss and excitement. its the civilians of palestine who should be attacking them. They get to do the suffering