I/III. http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/gaza-ceasefire-talks-intensify-palestinian-death-toll-exceeds-700 Gaza ceasefire talks intensify as Palestinian death toll exceeds 700 Palestinians women hold night prayers in front of the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem in support of Palestinians in Gaza on July 23, 2014, during Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip. (Photo: AFP - Ahmad Gharabli)
Published Thursday, July 24, 2014 *Updated at 2:47 am:* Talks to end the 16-day assault by Israel on the Gaza Strip have intensified, with US Secretary of State John Kerry shuttling between Jerusalem and Cairo in a bid to forge a truce. Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said on Wednesday there had been progress in negotiations to end the Gaza conflict but that it needed detailed guarantees that Israel would ease its blockade of the enclave. A Hamas official acknowledged that the movement realized that getting Israel to end the eight-year siege in tandem with a ceasefire was unrealistic. "There needs to be an agreement on the principles, the schedule (for ending the blockade) and the mechanism," the official said. Hamas's chief Khaled Meshaal on Wednesday again insisted on a ceasefire only after an end to the siege, in force since 2006. The official, who works closely with Meshaal, said however that they understood that the blockade would be eased only after the ceasefire, but they required a schedule in place first. The Israeli assault on Gaza has killed at least 706 Palestinians and wounded more than 4,519, according to Gaza health ministry sources. Meanwhile, 34 Israelis -- 32 of whom soldiers --and a Thai worker died in Israel. The official said he hoped the negotiations would bear fruit "in a few days." "The atmosphere in the talks is positive," he told AFP in a telephone interview. Kerry had also said negotiations were making progress. "But there is still work to be done," he told reporters in Jerusalem. Aides travelling with Kerry voiced hope that the diplomat could find a way for Israel and Hamas to end the violence and then negotiate indirectly. "There are a number of different ideas out there for how the ceasefire could work - there are a number of different formulas - and we're open to any of them," a senior US official said after Kerry met Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Hamas official said it required firm guarantees and details before signing off an a truce. "There should be guarantees by the parties demanding a ceasefire," he added, referring to the United States but also to Egypt, which controls the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. The official asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to share details of the negotiations. Egypt brokered a truce in 2012. But its new President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who overthrew the Islamist President Mohammed Mursi last year, has been hostile to Hamas. Meshaal, who is based in the Qatari capital Doha, said in a press conference that Washington had offered to "guarantee" such an agreement, but it had a track record of not following through. Another Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said Kerry's commitments were vague. "There are no American guarantees," he said in an interview with the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera broadcaster. "There is talk that guarantees will come," he said, adding that Hamas required clarifications. Hamas's position has been bolstered by support from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, an opponent of the Islamists before agreeing a unity deal with them in April. Abbas's PLO has said it agreed with Hamas's demands, which also include freeing Palestinian prisoners. He met Kerry in Ramallah on Wednesday. *UN launches human rights investigation* Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday launched a probe into the Gaza offensive, backing calls by the Palestinians to hold Israel to account despite fierce opposition from the Zionist state. The decision came after a marathon seven-hour emergency session of the top UN human rights body, where the Israelis and the Palestinians traded accusations over war crimes. The 47-member council backed a Palestinian-drafted resolution by 29 votes, with Arab and fellow Muslim countries joined by China and Russia, plus Latin American and African nations. The United States was the sole member to vote against. The 17 abstentions were by the council's European members, plus Japan and South Korea. The probe team, yet to be appointed, is tasked with reporting back to the council by March. *(AFP, Al-Akhbar)* II/III. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-votes-in-support-of-un-human-rights-council-resolution-on-gaza/articleshow/38938917.cms India votes in support of UN Human Rights Council resolution on Gaza By PTI | 24 Jul, 2014, 01.28AM IST GENEVA: India along with BRICS countries today voted in support of a UN Human Rights Council resolution to launch a probe into Israel's offensive on Gaza. India joined Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa to vote for a Palestinian-drafted resolution on "Ensuring Respect for international law in The Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jersusalem". In the 46-member council, 29 countries voted in support of the resolution while 17 nations abstained. The US was the only nation to vote against the resolution. European countries abstained. The voting came as bloodbath in the Gaza Strip continued unabated today with Israel and Hamas refusing to back down in the 16-day conflict that has killed over 680 Palestinians and 31 Israelis. Earlier, India asked Israel and Palestine to demonstrate political will to agree to a ceasefire and return to the negotiating table. "We remain hopeful that a sustainable ceasefire will be reached between the two sides, linked to the resumption of the peace process, for a comprehensive resolution of the Palestinian issue," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Asoke Mukerji said at the UN Security Council open debate on 'The Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question'. He said India is "deeply concerned" at the steep escalation in the conflict between Israel and Palestine that has resulted in a large number of civilian casualties and heavy damage to property. III. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/24/us-mideast-gaza-idUSKBN0FT06I20140724 U.S. lifts ban on flights to Israel as Gaza toll tops 700 BY NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI <http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=nidalal.mughrabi&;> AND DAN WILLIAMS <http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=dan.williams&;> GAZA/JERUSALEM Thu Jul 24, 2014 2:15am EDT 1 OF 4. Smokes rises during an Israeli ground offensive in the east of Gaza City July 23, 2014. CREDIT: REUTERS/AHMED ZAKOT (Reuters) - Israel won a partial reprieve from the economic pain of its Gaza war on Thursday with the lifting of a U.S. ban on commercial flights to Tel Aviv, while continued fighting pushed the Palestinian death toll over 700. A truce remained elusive despise intensive mediation efforts. Israel says it needs more time to eradicate rocket stocks and cross-border tunnels in the Gaza Strip and Hamas Islamists demand the blockade on the enclave be lifted. An Egyptian official said on Wednesday that a more limited humanitarian ceasefire may go into effect by the weekend, in time for the Eid al-Fitr festival, Islam's biggest annual celebration that follows the fasting month of Ramadan. But the United States, whose Secretary of State John Kerry is spearheading the indirect negotiations, was more circumspect. "It would not be accurate to say that we expect a ceasefire by the weekend," said a senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We are continuing to work on it, but it is not set at this point." The death toll in Gaza rose above 700 on Thursday as Israeli tank fire before dawn killed 16 people in the Hamas-dominated coastal territory, including six members of the same family, Palestinian health officials said. Israel has lost 32 soldiers to clashes inside Gaza and with Hamas raiders who have slipped across the fortified frontier in tunnels. Rocket and mortar shelling by Hamas and other Palestinian guerrillas has killed three civilians in Israel. Such shelling surged last month as Israel cracked down on Hamas in the occupied West Bank, triggering the July 8 air and sea barrage in Gaza that escalated into an invasion a week ago. Though Israel's Iron Dome rocket interceptor has shot down most of the rockets fired from Gaza, one that came close to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday prompted the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to bar American flights there. The ensuing wave of cancellations by foreign airlines emptied Israel's usually bustling international gateway and hurt its hi-tech economy at the height of summer tourist season. It was hailed as a "victory" by Hamas, and prompted an appeal by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Kerry to intervene. FLIGHTS TO RESUME Saying it had reviewed the security situation, the FAA canceled the ban late on Wednesday, and Israel predicted take-offs and landings by U.S. carriers would resume on Thursday though European airlines might take longer to follow suit. "The Europeans did not really deliberate over this, but acted more as a follow-up to the American decision," said Gadi Regev, chief of staff for Israel's Civil Aviation Authority. In what appeared to be let-up in Palestinian attacks, the Israeli military said on Thursday only one rocket had been launched from Gaza overnight. It fell wide, causing no damage. Israel's security cabinet released no decision after meeting late into the night on a proposed humanitarian truce under which fighting would cease immediately but negotiations for terms for an extended deal would begin only in several days' time. An Israeli official briefed on the deliberations said the army required four of five days to destroy cross-border tunnels and rocket arsenals, but acknowledged Palestinians were unlikely to hold fire while those missions continued on the ground. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said his fighters had made gains against Israel and voiced support for a humanitarian truce, but only if Israel eased restrictions on Gaza's 1.8 million Palestinians, who are also under an embargo by next-door Egypt. "Let's agree first on the demands and on implementing them and then we can agree on the zero hour for a ceasefire ... We will not accept any proposal that does not lift the blockade ... We do not desire war and we do not want it to continue but we will not be broken by it," Meshaal said on Wednesday in Qatar. Israel also came under criticism from the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who said there was "a strong possibility" Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza, where 703 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the fighting. Pillay also condemned indiscriminate Islamist rocket fire out of Gaza, and the United Nations Human Rights Council said it would launch an international inquiry into alleged violations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted furiously. "The decision today by the HRC is a travesty," he said in a statement. "The HRC should be launching an investigation into Hamas's decision to turn hospitals into military command centers, use schools as weapons depots and place missile batteries next to playgrounds, private homes and mosques." ROCKETS IN SCHOOLS U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has also been on a truce-seeking mission, lashed out at militants in Gaza by expressing "outrage and regret" at rockets found inside a U.N. school for refugees, for the second time during the conflict. Storing the rockets in the schools "turned schools into potentially military targets, endangering the lives of innocent children," U.N. employees and the tens of thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter at Gaza schools from the fighting, Ban said. He urged an investigation. Kerry returned to Egypt late on Wednesday after meeting in Jerusalem and the West Bank with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Ban and a grim-faced Netanyahu. "We have certainly made some steps forward. There is still work to be done," said Kerry, on one of his most intensive regional visits since Netanyahu called off U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations over Abbas's power-share deal with Hamas in April. The military says one of its soldiers is also missing and believes he might be dead. Hamas says it has captured him, but has not released a picture of him in their hands. Gaza has been rocked by regular bouts of violence since Israel unilaterally pulled out of the territory in 2005. Hamas, which rejects Israel's right to exist, balked at Egypt's proposal for an unconditional truce, saying its conditions had to be met in full before any end to the conflict. The war is exacting a heavy toll on impoverished Gaza. Palestinian officials say at least 475 houses have been destroyed by Israeli fire and 2,644 damaged. Some 46 schools, 56 mosques and seven hospitals have also suffered varying degrees of destruction. (Additional reporting by Ori Lewis <http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=ori.lewis&;>, Maayan Lubell <http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=maayanlubell&;> in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta <http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=ali.sawafta&;> in Ramallah,Arshad Mohammed <http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=arshad.mohammed&;> and Yasmine Saleh <http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=yasminesaleh&;> in Cairo, Amena Bakr <http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=amena.bakr&;> in Doha and Stephanie Nebehay <http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=stephanienebehay&;> in Geneva; Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan <http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=allyn.fisher.ilan&;>; Editing by Mohammad Zargham <http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=mohammad.zargham&;> andNick Macfie <http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=nick.macfie&;>) -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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