Het kersverse staakt het vuren is alweer geschonden:
Hamas said that it has officially ordered its military wing to stop firing projectiles on Israel, but rockets continued to be fired from Gaza towards the south of the country after the ceasefire took effect.
A Grad rocket that was fired towards Beersheba at around 8 pm Wednesday hit a house, but there no reports of injury. At least five rockets were fired toward the southern city shortly after Egypt declared that a truce between Israel and Hamas will go into effect at 9 pm. Rockets also landed in Netivot and Ashkelon.
Later, additional rockets were fired toward Ashdod, Netivot, Beer Tuvia and the Bnei Shimon and Hof Ashkelon regional councils. Some of the rockets landed in open areas, while others were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
Text of ceasefire agreement (updated)
Challah Hu Akbar grabbed the text of the cease-fire agreement that is supposed to be going into effect right about now:
Understanding Regarding Ceasefire in Gaza Strip
1. a. Israel shall stop all hostilities on the Gaza Strip land, sea and air including incursions and targeting of individuals.
b. All Palestinian factions shall stop all hostilities from the Gaza Strip against Israel, including rocket attacks, and attacks along the border
c. Opening the crossings and facilitating the movement of people and transfer of goods, and refraining from restricting residents free movement, and targeting residents in border areas and procedures of implementation shall be dealt with after 24 hours from the start of the ceasefire.
d. Other matters as maybe requested shall be addressed.
2. Implementation Mechanism:
a. Setting up of the zero hour for the Ceasefire Understanding to enter into effect.
b. Egypt shall receive assurances from each party that the party commit to what was agreed upon.
c. Each party shall commit itself not to perform any acts that would breach this understanding. In case of any observations, Egypt – as the sponsor of this understanding – shall be informed to follow up.
Fairly generic as far as I can see. One immediate issue, though, is that it sounds like it is requiring Israel to no longer enforce the buffer zone - the 300-to-1000 meters that Israel requires to remain clear so that there won't be any attempted explosives along the fence or other attempts to infiltrate Israel.
I can see that being a problem, and possibly it will be interpreted differently by each side.
Not that I am optimistic that this will last the night anyway - there are enough nutty jihadist groups that will be happy to lob a few rockets to prove their manhood.
UPDATE: So far, 23 minutes after the "cease-fire" was to go into effect, there have been rockets towards Hof Ashkelon, Beer Sheva, Shaar HaNegav and Eshkol. It appears that this is the world's definition of a cease fire - only Israel can break one.
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