Medhaj News: The ceasefire agreement fixed that Israel would immediately expand the fishing zone off Gaza's coast, allowing fishermen to sail as far as six nautical miles from shore, and would continue to expand the area gradually.
Israel bombs Gaza and Gaza shoots rockets, then a new ceasefire is imposed. The latest agreement was signed on August 26 after a 50-day Israeli assault on Gaza which spread in field of blood leaving 2100 Palestinians dead and a barren, terminally destructed landscape behind.
The agreement calls for an end to military action by both Israel and Hamas, as well as an easing of the Israeli cordon that has strangled Gaza for many years.
But the scene in Gaza isn’t rosy and pretty. Israeli navy forces opened fire at Palestinian fishermen in Gaza early on Friday, witnesses said, in the third incident off Gaza's coast last week.
Naval boats opened fire at fishermen off the coast of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, with no injuries reported. The fishermen also said that Israel is not honouring the ceasefire terms.
According to a report published in London Review of Books, here are following ways in which Israel has violated the ceasefire when Gaza was silent and did not fire a single rocket.
1. Annexed another 1500 acres of West Bank land
2. Seized $56 million of PA tax revenue
3. Not lifted the illegal blockade (as required by the ceasefire)
4. Broken the ceasefire by firing at fishermen on four separate occasions
6. Killed a 22-year-old, Issa al Qatari, a week before his wedding
7. Killed 16-year-old Mohammed Sinokrot with a rubber bullet to the head
8. Tortured a prisoner to the point of hospitalisation
9. Refused 13 members of the European Parliament entry into Gaza
10. Detained at least 127 people across the West Bank, including a seven-year-old boy in Hebron and two children, aged seven and eight, taken from the courtyard of their house in Silwad – and tear-gassed their mother
11. Continued to hold 33 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council in prison
12. Continued to hold 500 prisoners in administrative detention without charge or trial
13. Destroyed Bedouin homes in Khan al Ahmar, near Jerusalem, leaving 14 people homeless, and unveiled a plan to forcibly move thousands of Bedouin away from Jerusalem into two purpose-built townships
14. Destroyed a dairy factory in Hebron whose profits supported an orphanage
15. Destroyed a family home in Silwan, making five children homeless
16. Destroyed a house in Jerusalem where aid supplies en route to Gaza were being stored
17. Destroyed a well near Hebron
18. Set fire to an olive grove near Hebron
19. Raided a health centre and a nursery school in Nablus, causing extensive damage
20. Destroyed a swathe of farmland in Rafah by driving tanks over it
21. Ordered the dismantling of a small monument in Jerusalem to Mohamed Abu Khdeir, murdered in July by an Israeli lynch mob
22. Continued building a vast tunnel network under Jerusalem
23. Stormed the al Aqsa mosque compound with a group of far right settlers
24. Assisted hundreds of settlers in storming Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus
25. Prevented students from entering al Quds University, firing stun grenades and rubber bullets at those who tried to go in
26. Earned unknown millions on reconstruction materials for Gaza, where 100,000 people need their destroyed homes rebuilt. The total bill is estimated at $7.8 billion
In an ongoing study of violence between Israel and Gaza, The Jerusalem Fund, a non-profit in Washington, D.C., has catalogued cease-fire violations on either side. The principal finding is as follows: “Palestinian launches have been rare and sporadic and occurred almost always after successive instances of Israeli cease-fire violations.” Despite this, in the diplomacy on Mid-East peace, we invariably hear about Israel’s security concerns, while that of the Palestinians’ is hardly talked about.
Here is a graph of the findings:
Israeli violates the ceasefire more often, shoots and air bombs Gaza and more than Gaza reacts to it, it’s always that more Palestinians are dead over the Israelis. The findings are striking and something else that is striking is that some people do believe that it’s the Gaza that rockets first.
Yousef Munayyer, Executive Director of The Jerusalem Fund, explains with his findings that how it typically works: Israel can “fire into Gaza without accountability, provoke a reaction and then claim self-defense.”
And now its been too long. Enough blood has shed and enough homes are burned, sluggishly. Enough of cry and destruction. And enough of subjugation.
Hamas on this Wednesday said that it was prepared to fight back if Israel did not commit to the ceasefire agreement signed in August.
"The resistance is ready to fight for months and cause Israel huge losses," Hamas MP Ismail al-Ashqar said.