Saturday, May 19, 2007

Another Ceasefire in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the wreckage of a metal workshop destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. Rival Palestinian factions clinched a new ceasefire deal to end a week of violence that has left more than 50 dead as Israel continued to pound targets across Gaza, killing one Palestinian.(AFP/Mohammed Abed)

These ceasefire announcements are getting to be a running gag. Every day they claim to reach a truce, while still blaming Israel for the morass. It's all quite amusing.
GAZA CITY (AFP) - Rival Palestinian factions clinched a new ceasefire deal on Saturday to end a week of violence that has left more than 50 dead as Israel continued to pound targets across Gaza, killing one Palestinian.

The Hamas and Fatah movements agreed to implement a ceasefire from 1200 GMT on Saturday, the fifth such deal since violence erupted on Sunday, Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya's spokesman Ghazi Hamad said.

Shortly after announcement of the new truce, but before it took effect, gunmen in northern Gaza opened fire on the convoy of general Mohammed al-Masri of the Palestinian intelligence service, causing no casualties, Fatah spokesman Maher Maqdad said.

Under the agreement, "armed men will leave (their positions in) buildings and streets, will remove road blocks and release hostages on both sides at 1600 (local time)," Hamad said.

The deal was struck at the Egyptian mission in Gaza in the presence of Haniya, who had been in contact with Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal in Syria, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

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