It was actually a relatively quiet day in Gaza, particularly after the shock-and-awe attacks of Thursday.
Is it too cynical to wonder that the relative calm was to allow some 10,000 people attend the funeral of Said Siyam?
Is this to confirm to the world that Israel managed to get one of its main targets?
If the bombardments had continued as they did the day before, it would have been unthinkable that so many people would have shown up for the funeral, no matter how much they might have wanted to…
Siyam, described as the most senior Hamas leader who has been killed in the IDF’s Operation Cast Lead, was “assassinated” (as two major Israeli papers wrote in their headlines, without too much difficulty) while visiting his brother’s home. His son, his brother’s family, and four members of a neighboring family were also killed in the attack, arranged by the IDF and the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), and carried out by the Israeli Air Force.
Siyam, as founder of Hamas’ Executive Force, which moved forcefully to oust Fatah’s Preventive Security Force in June 2007, was not universally mourned in the West Bank, where the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority is headquartered in Ramallah. There was no apparent mourning there — by contrast to the three days declared by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the beginning of Operation Cast Lead on 27 December (when over 250 people were killed in unprecedented IDF bombardment, said to have been the worst death toll in a single day in the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict).
New figures released in the afternoon report that at least 1155 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza — and yet rockets and missiles continue to fall on Israeli areas in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip. As the aim of the Israeli military operation is to stop this firing, this suggests, of course, that the IDF has so far been killing the wrong people …
Meanwhile, in a very peculiar high-level event, the U.S. and Israeli Foreign Ministers publicly signed a multi -paragraph “Memorandum of Understanding” to stop arms smuggling from Iran to Gaza. At nearly the same time, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad crashed what was to have been an Arab League Emergency Summit in Doha, Qatar — which didn’t manage to attain a quorum — in the company of Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Mashaal, who rejected the Israeli terms for a cease-fire that Egypt has been trying to broker. Egyptian President Husni Mubarai boycotted the Doha Summit, as did Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).
UPDATE:Al-Jazeera broadcast on Saturday an extensive excerpt from a statement made (probably in response to a journalist’s question) by Qatar’s Minister of Information, in a press conference at the Emergency Summit that was not a Summit because it did not have a quorum, in which he recounted his pleas in two phone calls to Abu Mazen to come to attend. The Qatari Minister said he told Abu Mazen something like: “You have to come — this meeting is about your problem, the Palestinian problem, in Gaza”. According to the Qatari Minister, Abu Mazen said at first he didn’t need to come because it was not a summit. Then, an hour and a half later, Abu Mazen said he couldn’t come because he was under intense pressure to stay away…
Abu Mazen received UNSG BAN Ki-Moon in Ramallah on Friday, and the NY Times reported that the UN Chief said “at a joint news conference with Mr. Abbas that a ‘unilateral declaration of a ceasefire would be necesssary at this time’ in order to halt the hostilities. ‘The fighting must stop’, Mr. Ban said. ‘We have no time to lose’.” Israel, unsurprisingly, rejected the idea of a unilateral cease-fire from its side. And Abu Mazen is hardly in a position to organize a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza.
The very insightful Jerusalem Post correspondent on Palestinian Affairs, Khaled Abu Toameh, wrote that: “The war against Hamas is taking place not only in the Gaza Strip, but in the West Bank as well, Palestinians said on Thursday. Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority security forces, they noted, had stepped up their crackdown on Hamas supporters and figures in the West Bank since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead. The latest anti-Hamas measures in the West Bank, which are being carried out in coordination with the IDF and under the supervision of US security experts, are designed to foil any attempt by the movement to overthrow the PA. Earlier this week, Israeli security officials expressed satisfaction with the coordination between the PA security forces and the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) in fighting Hamas in the West Bank. The officials praised PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s forces for employing an ‘iron-fist’ policy against Hamas since the beginning of the military offensive … So far, the PA security forces have been successful in containing the protests inside the cities, which are under its control. Most of the clashes between Palestinians and the IDF have been taking place in the rural areas of the West Bank, where overall security is in the hands of Israel. The IDF has also been helping the PA security forces by arresting dozens of Hamas men in the West Bank. In some cases, Hamas members were detained by the IDF only hours after they were released from PA detention centers, in what appears to be a clear sign of security coordination between the PA and Israel” … This report by Khaled Abu Toameh can be read in full here
Meanwhile, Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff wrote in Haaretz that “In a series of blows during the past 24 hours, the most severe since the Israel Defense Forces operation began in the Gaza Strip 20 days ago, Hamas was brought very close to surrender. It is unlikely that we will see white flags, because the group recognizes that this would have a devastating effect on its image. But the Israeli military pressure has destroyed most of the Palestinian defenses in the heart of Gaza City, a day after the group had to agree in principle to the Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire a deal it is not very happy with … Meanwhile it seems that at least the Hamas leadership in Gaza has began to fathom the seriousness of its position. Two Hamas leaders in the Strip, Razi Hamad and Ahmed Yusuf, accused the group’s leadership in Damascus of ‘bringing a terrible disaster on Gaza’. The two are considered members of the pragmatic wing of the party, and charged the Damascus-based leadership with making a terrible mistake in ordering Hamas to foil the extension of the cease-fire agreement with Israel in December. However, in Damascus it is not clear that the message has been received. Ramadan Shalah, head of the Islamic Jihad, told Al Jazeera that the Palestinians will continue their resistance in Gaza and the city will not surrender because ‘victory is imminent’. The head of the Hamas politburo, Khaled Meshal, who is central in the decision that led to the events in the Strip, spoke in Damascus last night of a Palestinian ‘victory in Gaza’. During the speech, delivered live on Al Jazeera, breaking news announced that Said Sayyam and his brother Iyad had been killed in Gaza. The latest developments have contributed to optimism in Israel. However, those who are still toying with the idea of bringing down Hamas entirely should weigh what is best: a weakened Hamas or complete anarchy in the Strip, with no one in power to threaten or to make indirect agreements with? Gaza can still deteriorate into another Somalia”. This article is posted on the Haaretz website here.
A Haaretz editoral called for an immediate stop to Operation Cast Lead: “Three weeks following the start of Operation Cast Lead, and at least one week too late – it should be brought to an immediate end. This is the time to put the operation aside. It has crushed the military organization of Hamas, killed senior figures of the group, but also killed hundreds of civilians and injured thousands. The basic infrastructure in the Gaza Strip has also suffered a fatal blow. The UNRWA hospital and food storage facilities that were hit yesterday now join a list of population centers and power plant, which have already been struck in the operation. The military force that Israel has applied in the past three weeks does not permit it to ignore the terrible suffering experienced by the residents of Gaza. The ‘humanitarian corridors’ are insufficient. The three or four ‘mercy hours’ leave little chance of delivering convoys of supplies or distributing needed items to the population that is now under direct Israeli occupation … Morally and in terms of international law, so long as there is no sovereign rule in the Gaza Strip, Israel is responsible for the fate of 1.5 million civilians there. More importantly, disease, poverty and unemployment are the fertilizer in the greenhouse that grows the desperation and the radicalism that brought Hamas to power. Israel is the one that will reap the hatred and fear that Operation Cast Lead will sow in the hearts of the children of Gaza. These are the neighbors with whom Israel will have to reach a peace agreement and live next to for generations to come. The government needs to prepare without delay, with the Palestinian Authority, to rally the international community to repair the civilian infrastructure of the Gaza Strip. More than any other party, it is important for Israel to present the residents of the Strip with a better reality than that which Hamas has offered them – a policy of Qassams and Iranian meddling … An announcement should be made today that the military operation has ended, whatever its achievements and cost to date, and that the IDF troops will soon return home”. This Haaretz editorial can be read in full here.
An Israeli envoy. Maj-Gen (ret) Amos Gilad, described the discussions he held in Cairo about an Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire to a “diplomatic and security consultation meeting” that was convened by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday night, and attended by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as well as “various senior security officials”. Gilad was sent back to Cairo on Fruday for a further round of talks, or clarifications, and Livni’s presence was requested in Washington concerning a new U.S. Israel Memoradum of Understanding to stop arms smuggling into Gaza — one of Israel’s key demands for stopping its current offensive, which has caused mayhem in the world’s most densely-populated areas.
Objections by both Israel and Hamas to the Egyptian proposal have been outlined in the Israeli media.
Herb Keinon wrote in the Jerusalem Post, for example, that “According to Reuters, the main points disputed in the current proposal were the duration of the proposed truce, which Hamas insists on being a year, and how quickly Israel would complete the withdrawal of its forces from the Gaza Strip and reopen the crossings. Unconfirmed reports late Thursday night suggested a ‘time out’ could start within 72 hours, leading to a two-week truce in which a more lasting arrangement could be finalized …
Although details of the potential cease-fire agreement are still fluid, the basic parameters are an immediate end to the fighting followed by an IDF withdrawal after it becomes clear Hamas has stopped firing rockets on Israel. Once Israel pulls out, Egypt – together with technical and logistical assistance from the international community – will establish a mechanism to stop arms smuggling. This will be augmented by the agreement between Israel and the US. The next step will be indirect talks through the Egyptians regarding the opening of the Gaza crossings and the release of kidnapped soldier St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit. According to Israeli officials, what still needed to be worked out was a timetable for the IDF withdrawal, as well as the duration of the cease-fire. In addition, according to various reports, certain disagreements have emerged regarding some arrangements. For instance, on the question of the Rafah crossing, both Israel and Egypt want to see it opened under EU monitors, with a Palestinian Authority presence, and not Hamas. Hamas, however, is demanding a presence as well. As to the Philadelphi Corridor, Israel was interested in a significant international presence, while both Egypt and Hamas were opposed. Hamas officials told Egypt they were prepared to accept a one-year truce, with the possibility of subsequent renewals, provided that Israel withdrew all troops from Gaza within five to seven days and all border crossings were immediately opened, diplomatic sources said. They also sought international guarantees that the crossings would stay open, the sources added. These positions did not differ markedly from earlier Hamas stances, and underline that there are still striking differences between the two parties in their indirect, Egypt-mediated talks on a cease-fire” … This report can be read in full here.