JERUSALEM — Israel declared late Saturday that a unilateral cease-fire would begin in Gaza within hours, but said its troops would remain in place for now.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed Israel’s cease-fire announcement and said in a statement that the United States “expects that all parties will cease attacks and hostile actions immediately.”
That appeared unlikely as the truce’s 2 a.m. start neared early Sunday. News reports as of 6 a.m. seemed to indicate that things were relatively calm.
In Gaza City, a Hamas spokesman in hiding, Fawzi Barhoum, said in a statement that “we will not accept the presence of a single soldier in Gaza,” according to Agence-France Presse. “The Zionist enemy must stop all its aggression, completely withdraw from the Gaza Strip, lift the blockade and open the crossings.”
Beyond the potential for an effective end to heavy fighting on Sunday, the shape of any lasting peace was far from clear.
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Monday, January 19, 2009
Israel Declares Cease-Fire; Hamas Says It Will Fight On
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