JERUSALEM
— As a 72-hour cease-fire mediated by Egypt took hold on Tuesday,
Gazans emerged to view a shattered landscape with Hamas still in power,
while Israel began to debate the politics, costs and accomplishments of
the monthlong war.
Israel
announced the withdrawal of all its forces from the Gaza Strip, and
both sides said they would engage in talks on a lasting arrangement to
keep the peace. But the negotiations, also to be mediated by Egypt, are
bound to be tricky, given the participants’ antagonisms and sharply
different goals. Israeli officials emphasized that their army, navy and
air force remained deployed near Gaza, primed to respond to any attacks
from the coastal territory.
Since the conflict began in earnest on July 8, Gaza officials say that more than 1,830 Palestinians have died, most of them civilians. Israel says 64 of its soldiers and three civilians have been killed.
Since the conflict began in earnest on July 8, Gaza officials say that more than 1,830 Palestinians have died, most of them civilians. Israel says 64 of its soldiers and three civilians have been killed.
People
on both sides are wondering if the death and destruction was worth what
is essentially another stalemate between Israel and Hamas, the militant
Islamic group that governs Gaza, and its ally Islamic Jihad. The
cease-fire plan accepted late Monday is essentially the same one that
Hamas rejected three weeks ago, before Israel moved into Gaza with
ground troops.
In
Gaza City, there was little sense of celebration that the fighting had
stopped, although many of those interviewed said they thought this
cease-fire was more likely to succeed than previous ones, which quickly
collapsed amid new violence.
Gaza’s streets on Tuesday slowly filled with cars, donkey carts and trucks, many of them piled with the belongings of displaced families moving from one spot to another toting mattresses, kitchen supplies and bags of clothes.
Gaza faces a major challenge in reconstruction, with its infrastructure, always shaky, badly damaged. Electrical cables are down, the only power plant is out of action, the water and sewage systems are damaged and hospitals urgently need resupplying.
About 260,000 of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents have been displaced by the fighting, according to the United Nations, and many thousands of them remain huddled in schools or with friends and relatives. Many have no homes to return to.
“We lost in one instant all we had worked for 40 years to build,” said Fouad Harara, 55, who had worked for decades as a laborer in Israel. “The only thing we gained is destruction.”
Gaza’s streets on Tuesday slowly filled with cars, donkey carts and trucks, many of them piled with the belongings of displaced families moving from one spot to another toting mattresses, kitchen supplies and bags of clothes.
Gaza faces a major challenge in reconstruction, with its infrastructure, always shaky, badly damaged. Electrical cables are down, the only power plant is out of action, the water and sewage systems are damaged and hospitals urgently need resupplying.
About 260,000 of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents have been displaced by the fighting, according to the United Nations, and many thousands of them remain huddled in schools or with friends and relatives. Many have no homes to return to.
“We lost in one instant all we had worked for 40 years to build,” said Fouad Harara, 55, who had worked for decades as a laborer in Israel. “The only thing we gained is destruction.”
In
the Shejaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, where many Israeli
soldiers were killed and where entire streets looked as if they had been
through an earthquake, Hani Harazeen, 42, searched the rubble of his
collapsed home for anything he could find.
“We used to praise God that we all had work and lived together,” he said of himself and his brothers, who lived with their families in adjacent buildings. “Now we are scattered all over and looking for places to sleep.”
He said he had not seen any Palestinian fighters before he fled the area and had no idea how they had fought.
“We used to praise God that we all had work and lived together,” he said of himself and his brothers, who lived with their families in adjacent buildings. “Now we are scattered all over and looking for places to sleep.”
He said he had not seen any Palestinian fighters before he fled the area and had no idea how they had fought.
“The war started, and the resistance responded,” he said. “But does Hamas have fighter jets? Can its rockets do this to a home?”
After being nearly invisible to most Gazans throughout the war, Hamas police officers emerged in some areas, patrolling in blue and white trucks and inspecting damaged neighborhoods.
New billboards had been put up recently in Gaza City, one of them showing a group of fighters and a tunnel with the words “The Tunnels of Glory” and “Passages to Arrive in Jerusalem.”
Hamas’s Al Aqsa radio station alternated between triumphant jihadi anthems and talk shows about how “the resistance” had vanquished the “Zionist enemy” with its rockets, forcing it to withdraw from Gaza.
After being nearly invisible to most Gazans throughout the war, Hamas police officers emerged in some areas, patrolling in blue and white trucks and inspecting damaged neighborhoods.
New billboards had been put up recently in Gaza City, one of them showing a group of fighters and a tunnel with the words “The Tunnels of Glory” and “Passages to Arrive in Jerusalem.”
Hamas’s Al Aqsa radio station alternated between triumphant jihadi anthems and talk shows about how “the resistance” had vanquished the “Zionist enemy” with its rockets, forcing it to withdraw from Gaza.
Interactive Map: Assessing the Damage and Destruction in Gaza
Lt.
Col. Peter Lerner, the Israeli military spokesman, said that Israel had
destroyed about 32 tunnels built by Hamas and leading into Israel, and
that Israeli forces had killed about 900 militants, a figure that is
bound to be challenged by Hamas. He said that Israel had destroyed more
than 3,000 rockets belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad and that those
groups had launched more than 3,300 rockets toward Israel. Israel said
it suspected that they had 3,000 rockets left.
But Hamas and Islamic Jihad appeared ready for the conflict to come to a halt.
The cease-fire could break down over negotiations for a more durable arrangement, or it could be extended beyond the initial 72 hours. “It’s clear now that the interest of all parties is to have a cease-fire,” said Bassam Salhi, a Palestinian delegate in Cairo. “It’s going to be tough negotiations because Israel has demands, too. We don’t have any guarantees the siege will be removed.”
Israel is demanding security, a durable end to attacks from Gaza and strong control over what comes in and out of Gaza, aided by the Egyptians, to prevent Hamas and Islamic Jihad from easily rearming or building new networks of tunnels with diverted or smuggled cement.
Yossi Kuperwasser, director general of the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, said that in Cairo, Israel wanted “to come out with arrangements that assure us that this cease-fire will be different from previous ones, that it lasts a long time and Hamas won’t rearm itself.” He added, “Fortunately, now we have an Egypt that seems willing to contribute to this outcome,” with a president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who opposes Hamas.
Israel has not succeeded in destroying Hamas, which was said to be a goal of the campaign, or in dislodging it from control over Gaza. Hamas is expected to call the monthlong conflict a victory. Hamas killed more Israeli soldiers, 64, than in the last major conflict, in 2008-9, when 10 soldiers were killed, four of them by friendly fire. Hamas commanders largely survived the war; its rockets reached nearly all of Israel, forcing thousands into shelters, and even shut down Israel’s international airport near Tel Aviv for two days.
Hamas has been hurt, but it has survived and has earned respect among many Palestinians and other Arabs. That has infuriated some on the Israeli right, who blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for lacking gumption. Uzi Landau, for example, the tourism minister from the party Yisrael Beiteinu, told Israel Radio, “The operation ended with no achievement that ensures quiet.”
Yaakov Peri, the minister of science from the centrist Yesh Atid party but also a former head of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, said the army’s achievements were significant. “But I think we have to measure the current confrontation and the current suffering by the yardstick of the political achievements that Israel has to be very, very determined about,” he said.
Israel has also suffered a significant blow to its international standing, with the United Nations and Western nations, including the United States, Britain, France and Germany, lamenting the human cost of the war and criticizing some of Israel’s attacks on or near United Nations schools that were harboring thousands of displaced civilians.
There will also be new debates in Israel about the preparedness of the army for urban combat and even an investigation into why the extent of the Hamas tunnel system into Israel was either not known or not prepared for better. The Iron Dome air defense system, which destroys or diverts missiles, most likely saved many Israeli lives, but the Hamas tunnel system was a psychological and tactical surprise.
Egypt is also eager to bolster the status of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, and Fatah, its political wing, which govern the West Bank. Even Mr. Netanyahu and his team, who have often dismissed Mr. Abbas, are now looking to him and Fatah as potential partners.
But Mr. Abbas is 79 and has health problems, raising questions about who will succeed him. One possible candidate, Mohammed Dahlan, 52, who was born in Gaza, is favored by some Egyptian officials. But he is disliked by Mr. Abbas and hated by Hamas, which Mr. Dahlan tried to suppress when he effectively ran Gaza for the Palestinian Authority.
Just before the cease-fire went into effect at 8 a.m., a last salvo of rockets was fired toward Israel from Gaza, causing warning sirens to sound in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, while the Israeli Air Force carried out at least five strikes in Gaza, a customary last word before another in a series of conflicts between Israel and Hamas came to an end.
Steven Erlanger reported from Jerusalem, and Ben Hubbard from Gaza City. Jodi Rudoren and Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza.
But Hamas and Islamic Jihad appeared ready for the conflict to come to a halt.
The cease-fire could break down over negotiations for a more durable arrangement, or it could be extended beyond the initial 72 hours. “It’s clear now that the interest of all parties is to have a cease-fire,” said Bassam Salhi, a Palestinian delegate in Cairo. “It’s going to be tough negotiations because Israel has demands, too. We don’t have any guarantees the siege will be removed.”
Israel is demanding security, a durable end to attacks from Gaza and strong control over what comes in and out of Gaza, aided by the Egyptians, to prevent Hamas and Islamic Jihad from easily rearming or building new networks of tunnels with diverted or smuggled cement.
Yossi Kuperwasser, director general of the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, said that in Cairo, Israel wanted “to come out with arrangements that assure us that this cease-fire will be different from previous ones, that it lasts a long time and Hamas won’t rearm itself.” He added, “Fortunately, now we have an Egypt that seems willing to contribute to this outcome,” with a president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who opposes Hamas.
Israel has not succeeded in destroying Hamas, which was said to be a goal of the campaign, or in dislodging it from control over Gaza. Hamas is expected to call the monthlong conflict a victory. Hamas killed more Israeli soldiers, 64, than in the last major conflict, in 2008-9, when 10 soldiers were killed, four of them by friendly fire. Hamas commanders largely survived the war; its rockets reached nearly all of Israel, forcing thousands into shelters, and even shut down Israel’s international airport near Tel Aviv for two days.
Hamas has been hurt, but it has survived and has earned respect among many Palestinians and other Arabs. That has infuriated some on the Israeli right, who blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for lacking gumption. Uzi Landau, for example, the tourism minister from the party Yisrael Beiteinu, told Israel Radio, “The operation ended with no achievement that ensures quiet.”
Yaakov Peri, the minister of science from the centrist Yesh Atid party but also a former head of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, said the army’s achievements were significant. “But I think we have to measure the current confrontation and the current suffering by the yardstick of the political achievements that Israel has to be very, very determined about,” he said.
Israel has also suffered a significant blow to its international standing, with the United Nations and Western nations, including the United States, Britain, France and Germany, lamenting the human cost of the war and criticizing some of Israel’s attacks on or near United Nations schools that were harboring thousands of displaced civilians.
There will also be new debates in Israel about the preparedness of the army for urban combat and even an investigation into why the extent of the Hamas tunnel system into Israel was either not known or not prepared for better. The Iron Dome air defense system, which destroys or diverts missiles, most likely saved many Israeli lives, but the Hamas tunnel system was a psychological and tactical surprise.
Egypt is also eager to bolster the status of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, and Fatah, its political wing, which govern the West Bank. Even Mr. Netanyahu and his team, who have often dismissed Mr. Abbas, are now looking to him and Fatah as potential partners.
But Mr. Abbas is 79 and has health problems, raising questions about who will succeed him. One possible candidate, Mohammed Dahlan, 52, who was born in Gaza, is favored by some Egyptian officials. But he is disliked by Mr. Abbas and hated by Hamas, which Mr. Dahlan tried to suppress when he effectively ran Gaza for the Palestinian Authority.
Just before the cease-fire went into effect at 8 a.m., a last salvo of rockets was fired toward Israel from Gaza, causing warning sirens to sound in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, while the Israeli Air Force carried out at least five strikes in Gaza, a customary last word before another in a series of conflicts between Israel and Hamas came to an end.
Steven Erlanger reported from Jerusalem, and Ben Hubbard from Gaza City. Jodi Rudoren and Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza.
With the Israeli Army now moving into defensive positions, a historical look at how the fighting could end.
Video Credit By Emily B. Hager and Christian Roman on
Publish Date August 4, 2014.
Image CreditWissam Nassar for The New York Times Cease-Fire Takes Hold in Gaza as Israel Says Troops Are Out
Soldiers rested on Tuesday after Israel
withdrew all of its forces from the Gaza Strip and a 72-hour cease-fire
went into effect.
Uriel Sinai for The New York Times
People returned from shelters to their
destroyed homes in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, on Tuesday as a 72-hour
cease-fire mediated by Egypt took hold.
Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Residents surveyed the damage in Beit Lahiya.
Gaza officials say that more than 1,830 Palestinians have died in the
conflict between Israel and Hamas, most of them civilians.
Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Destruction in part of the northern Beit Hanoun district of Gaza at the beginning of the truce on Tuesday.
Marco Longari/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A displaced family returned home amid the rubble in Beit Lahiya. Many people carried mattresses, kitchen supplies and bags of clothes. Wissam Nassar for The New York Times
Residents of Beit Lahiya. Gazans began to venture out more freely as the cease-fire began.
Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Israeli tanks moved away from the Gaza border on Tuesday as Israel announced a withdrawal of forces.
Jim Hollander/European Pressphoto Agency
Most Israeli troops had already pulled back from populated areas in Gaza, and many had redeployed in Israel.
Uriel Sinai for The New York Times
Israeli troops leaving the border with the
Gaza Strip. Israel says 64 of its soldiers have been killed since
fighting began on July 8.
Uriel Sinai for The New York Times
Members of the Shabat family searched for
belongings amid the rubble of their family house in Beit Hanoun, Gaza
Strip. Hamas said it would engage in talks on a lasting arrangement to
keep the peace.
Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press
Residents outside a damaged apartment block
in Beit Lahiya. In addition to the casualties in Gaza, the area’s
infrastructure, including electricity, water and sewage systems, has
been badly damaged. According to the United Nations, about 260,000 of
Gaza’s 1.8 million people have been displaced by the fighting.
Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Hundreds of thousands of people remained
displaced and were staying in schools or with friends and relatives,
because the destruction wrought by the war left them with no homes to
return to.
Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Boys played soccer on a beach in Gaza City on
Tuesday. The Egyptians hope to begin talks in Cairo with all the
concerned parties on how to turn the 72-hour pause into a more durable
peace.
Mohammed Saber/European Pressphoto Agency
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