Fact Sheet - the Hamas-Israeli Ceasefire of 2008

Please read this illuminating Factsheet on the breakdown of the Hamas-Israeli ceasefire.

(Apologies for the straighforward nature of the text. Indymedia does not allow the report to be uploaded in it's original .doc format so it had to be pasted into the text box. The full report will be upload to the the IPSC website, www.ipsc.ie,soon)

How Israel torpedoed the ceasefire to produce a casus belli

By David Morrison
Political Officer, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign

• From 19 June 2008 until 4 November 2008 – during the Egyptian brokered ceasefire – Hamas didn’t fire any rockets or mortar shells from Gaza into Israel and restrained other Palestinian groups from doing so. This was confirmed by Israeli spokesman, Mark Regev, on More4 News on 9 January 20091.

• This was despite the fact that Israel failed to honour its obligations under the ceasefire agreement to lift its savage economic blockade, which had brought the people of Gaza to the verge of starvation.

• From 19 June 2008 until 4 November 2008, only 20 rockets and 17 mortar shells were fired from Gaza into Israel (all by Palestinian groups other than Hamas), compared to 1,199 rockets and 1,072 mortar shells in 2008 up to 19 June – which amounts to a reduction of 98% in the frequency of both rockets and mortars.

• On 4 November 2008 – as the attention of the world was on the election of Barack Obama in the US – Israel launched an armed assault on Gaza killing six people and torpedoing the ceasefire altogether.

• The inevitable retaliation in the form of the resumption of Hamas firing its homemade rockets into Israel provided the casus belli “justifying” Israel’s long-planned and savage onslaught on Gaza launched on 27 December, which has killed nearly a thousand Palestinians and wounded thousands more.

The dramatic reduction in rocket fire occurred during the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Egypt, which came into force on 19 June 2008. Under this 6-month agreement, in exchange for Hamas and other Palestinian groups stopping the firing of rockets and mortars out of Gaza, Israel undertook to end both its military operations against Gaza and its economic blockade of Gaza (which, as stated by the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Dáil on 11th March 2008, constitutes “collective punishment … illegal under international humanitarian law”).

1 See http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SILJxPTqjAM. The complete More4 News story is at http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid155436415...29001

This information on the ceasefire comes from the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli organisation which is regularly quoted by the Israeli Government. A report dated 5 November 2008, entitled Escalation in the Gaza Strip, on the Center’s website 2 states:

"Since the lull arrangement went into effect on June 19, 2008, the Palestinian terrorist organizations have violated it scores of times, primarily by firing rockets and mortar shells. Occasionally rogue terrorist organizations have been responsible for the violations, among them networks belonging to Fatah, the PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] and the Army of Islam. Hamas, for its part, did not take part in rocket and mortar shell fire and sometimes prevented other organizations from attacking, although it did not confront them directly and massively or end their continued violation."

The report also gives the following bar chart (image cannot be uploaded) showing the dramatic decline in rocket and mortar firing since the ceasefire came into force (figures for January to mid-November 2008)

The ceasefire wasn’t perfect. Nevertheless, as of 4 November, the threat to Israeli civilians was greatly diminished – in October only 2 rockets (and no mortar shells) were fired from Gaza. No Israeli civilian had been killed since the ceasefire began on 19 June.

This much reduced threat was not from Hamas, but from other Palestinian groups. Hamas held its fire, even though Israel failed to honour its promise to lift its economic blockade. Israel ceased military operations in Gaza between 19 June and 4 November (but killed at least 16 Palestinians on the West Bank in that period).

An Israeli Government with the security of its civilians as its priority would have been extremely careful to avoid action that would disturb this ceasefire, which had been so successful in

2 www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/ct_e011.htm
diminishing the threat to them. It might even have taken action to bolster the ceasefire by, for example, easing its economic blockade as it was supposed to do.

But, instead, on the night of 4 November (while the world was watching the election of Barack Obama) Israel took action that torpedoed the ceasefire – Israeli forces entered Gaza and killed 6 members of Hamas. Israel had now broken both elements of its ceasefire agreement with Hamas. The inevitable consequence was that Hamas responded by resuming rocket and mortar fire into Israel.

The murderous military assault on Gaza, which began on 27 December, could not have been justified to the world prior to 4 November, when, thanks to Hamas holding fire and restraining other groups, rocket and mortar fire out of Gaza was almost non-existent. Rocket and mortar firing out of Gaza was necessary as a casus belli. And the incursion of 4 November was mounted to produce the reaction which could be presented as a casus belli.

The Israeli Government, which tells us unceasingly that it has been forced to act in order to ensure the safety of its citizens, did exactly the opposite on 4 November. It made them less safe, in order to justify the coming assault. No Israeli civilians were killed while the ceasefire was in operation; at least 4 have been killed since.

Had the Israeli Government’s primary concern been the safety of its citizens, it would have fulfilled its obligations under the ceasefire agreement – desisting from military actions against Gaza and lifting its economic blockade of Gaza. Had it done so, there is no doubt whatsoever that Hamas would have been prepared to maintain indefinitely the ceasefire that prevailed prior to 4 November.

Instead, the Israeli Government chose to torpedo the ceasefire to provoke a casus belli in order to launch a murderous assault on Hamas, killing nearly a thousand Palestinians and injuring thousands more – and making its own citizens less safe in the process.

11 January 2009

Note: HAMAS AND THE 2005 CEASEFIRE

In January 2006, Hamas contested the elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) for the first time and won a majority of the seats, 74 out of 132. It had not engaged in armed resistance for nearly a year, having taken world opinion on board and chosen to go the political route: in February 2005 it had announced a truce and ceased bombings in Israel.

Hamas spokesmen made it clear that they were seeking a long-term truce with Israel, the price being Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories. The elected Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, stated in an interview with BBC that Hamas would be prepared to work a two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders (re-broadcast on BBC World, 9 January 2009). This was an opportunity for a more peaceful phase in the Middle East.

But, instead of taking this opportunity, the “Quartet” of the US, the EU, Russia and the UN secretary general refused to accept the verdict of the ballot box and deal with the elected Hamas-led government, despite universal agreement that the elections had been free and fair.

This refusal by the US and the EU to accept the Hamas electoral mandate made it easy for Israel to do likewise and to set about attempting to destroy Hamas as a political and military movement.

Elected members of the PLC from the West Bank, belonging to Hamas, including the Speaker, were detained - nearly all of them are still detained - and a fierce military assault was mounted against Hamas in Gaza, despite it being on ceasefire. In all, nearly 700 Palestinians (and 23 Israelis, including 17 civilians) were killed in 2006, a year which began with Hamas on ceasefire and engaging in electoral politics for the first time. But this attempt to destroy Hamas failed.

(See also this More 4 News report.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SILJxPTqjAM