Cease-fire between Israel and militants in Gaza appears to hold after days of fighting

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By FARES AKRAM and TIA GOLDENBERG today

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A fragile cease-fire between Israeli forces and militants in the Gaza Strip appeared to be holding Sunday after a five-day clash that killed 33 Palestinians and two people in Israel.

The latest round of Gaza fighting was sparked Tuesday when Israeli jets killed three top commanders from the Islamic Jihad militant group in response to earlier rocket launches from Gaza. Those killings set off a barrage of militant fire and the conflagration threatened to drag the region into another all-out war until an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire took hold late Saturday.

While the calm appeared to bring a sense of relief to Gaza’s 2 million people and hundreds of thousands of Israelis who had been largely confined to bomb shelters in recent days, the agreement did nothing to address the underlying issues that have fueled numerous rounds of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip over the years.

In Gaza, residents surveyed the latest damage caused to their surroundings, with gaping holes left in the apartments serving as what Israel said were hideouts for the six senior Islamic Jihad members killed during this round. Gaza’s main cargo crossing with Israel reopened Sunday after warnings that keeping it closed would force Gaza’s sole power plant to shut down, deepening a power crisis.




Read more: https://apnews.com/article/gaza-israel-palestinians-hamas-netanyahu-fd327efb5a851fb63be798aa202318b3

[Mosby]

1. The Gazans are celebrating their historic victory.

Link to tweet

[Richard58]

2. Ugh!

I get so tired of reading reports that always refer to the citizens of Gaza as "militants." Israel constantly bombs targets in Gaza claiming they are going after "Islamic militants." But 99.9% of the time they are hitting residential neighborhoods killing many innocent people. Then they act "shocked when the Gazans fire their pathetic rockets in retaliation. Face facts, Israel is a vicious apartheid state and is imposing incredible suffering on the citizens of Gaza. I fully support the Gazans right to self-defense! Israel is a bully nation and a colonizer and we support their government with 4 billion dollars of our tax dollars every year. Of course why am I shocked? We supported apartheid South Africa for decades.

[Beastly Boy]

3. IDF is going after the militants.

Disputing this is ridiculous. Of course, if you keep your eyes wide shut to the militants, their ammunition depots, their border crossings, their tunnels, their headquarters, and their command centers, then 99.9% of what's left are residential neighborhoods. Of course, it goes without saying, and you must be aware of this, that the Geneva Conventions demand that the militants, not Israel, must protect the civilians in their custody. And what do you know, 99.9% of the dead civilians, as well as 100% of their militants, will have died in their custody, and that's fully acceptable to them. Also, nearly half of the 99.9% of civilian deaths in Gaza are due to the rockets fired by the militants from Gaza, exclusively targeting civilians in Israel, that detonate in Gaza.

I too am tired of reading about the militants in Gaza. Unfortunately, they are there, and, according to the aforementioned Geneva Conventions, they constitute legitimate targets for Israeli strikes. Per the same Conventions, plotting to attack and attacking the military personnel of an occupying nation is not self defense, and justifies retaliation. Attacking the territory the militants do not occupy is not self defense, and justifies retaliation. Attacking civilians of an occupying power, whether on an occupied territory or not, is not self-defense, and justifies retaliation. Hiding behind civilians while engaging in any of the above is not self defense. Calling for annihilation of an occupying state and all its civilian population is not self defense. Any of the above is exactly what makes militants militants, or in the language of the Geneva Conventions, "belligerent combatants".

Tired yet? Wait, there is more! There are two internationally recognized legal definitions of "apartheid": One is in UN’s International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid adopted by UNGA in 1974, and the other is in the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). None of them can be remotely applicable towards Israel. The one definition you appear to prefer over the two mentioned above is the definition that is a product of Iranian propaganda. Which, of course, does not create an obligation by the international community to be taken seriously. The same goes for the "colonialism" trope. You may not be aware that the original "colonialists" of the West Bank and Gaza were Jordan and Egypt respectively, who promptly lost these territories to Israel. Were these Jordanian and Egyptian colonies you are talking about? Where is the outrage over THEIR colonialism?

[EX500rider]

4. What would you call teams of men who launch rockets at civilian targets in another country?

"Militants" works, so does "terrorists", especially as they don't go for military targets but try to kill civilians, unlike the Israeli's who actively warn civilians if the can.

"apartheid state" if you mean Gaza then yes.

How many Muslims live peacefully in Israel? many
How many Jews live peacefully in Gaza? lol

[Martinez8889]

5. fbi

GAZA CITY......

[marble falls]

6. Got any verbs to add to that?