Today's Situation

Another day, another ceasefire, December 20, 2006

Two Palestinians were killed and six others wounded early Wednesday in battles between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza City, just hours after the feuding factions agreed to a second truce to a week of violence that left at least 14 dead.

Both President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh spoke to journalists on Tuesday night, each promising that the violence would end.

'There will be a return to complete calm that will allow us to return to our business and to take care of our people,' Abbas told reports, adding that the agreement 'will be applied in Gaza to put an end to the armed presence, to shooting and to chaotic military deployments.'

A little later, Haniyeh said, 'We have an agreement, which we welcome... Interior ministry services will oversee the implementation of this agreement tonight and we hope that our people will wake up tomorrow and find a better situation so that we can settle the current crisis.'

Despite the signing of a formal document, which some commentators suggested was an indication that this ceasefire was more likely to hold than the previous one, Wednesday's deaths and overnight gunfire seem to suggest that even their leaders' desire for an end to the killing may not be enough to stop the armed militants bloodletting.

Adding another worrying element to the already volatile Gaza Strip, al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said in a video tape aired on Wednesday that Palestinian elections would not free Palestinian land and would deal a blow to holy war against Israeli occupation. 'Those who are trying to free Islamic land through elections that are based on secular constitutions ... will not free a grain of Palestinian sand, but will choke jihad,' he said in the tape broadcast by Al Jazeera television.

While the internal Palestinian strife goes on unabated, there does seem to be a scintilla of movement on talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Haaretz reports that PA sources claim that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas are expected to meet within days, although in Israel, sources stressed that a date has not been set. A Palestinian source close to Abbas told the newspaper that the first official meeting with Olmert is likely to take place between December 24 or 25, and at the latest, January 1 or 2.

On Tuesday, Olmert made a surprise visit to Jordan, where he met with King Abdullah for talks described by Israel's ambassador to the Hashemite kingdom as 'routine.' Speaking in Israel Radio, Ya'akov Rosen downplayed the significance of the visit; government officials explained that the trip was not previously announced in order to maintain maximum security. Rosen confirmed, however, that Abdullah places a telephone call to Abbas during his two-hour meeting with the Israeli leader.

According to Maariv, Abdullah is the latest in a long line of regional and world leaders who have a plan or solving the Middle East conflict. The paper reports that the monarch prepared for his meeting yesterday by sending Olmert a series of questions designed to test how serious Israel is about negotiating with the PA. Abdullah will follow-up his meeting with Olmert, according to Maariv, by holding a similar discussion with Abbas next week. The goal of the meetings is to arrange a summit meeting between Olmert and Abbas in Jordan.

In the West Bank, meanwhile, six Palestinians, including a 13-year-old girl, have been killed by IDF fire in the past 24 hours. According to Ynet, a soldier has been suspended after he mistook 13-year-old Da'a Abdelkader for a suicide bomber, opened fire and killed her. Army Radio reports that the head of the Central Command, Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh, ordered the soldier suspended from duty until the conclusion of an investigation by the Military Police.

Elsewhere, both Olmert and President Bashar Assad denied the existence of a missive sent by the Syrian leader to Israel's prime minister. Assad rejected the report, which claimed that he sent secret proposals to Israel offering talks on the disputed Golan Heights and help on releasing an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas.

The above text was written and compiled by Simon Spungin using newpaper, radio and wire reports, in English and Hebrew.

Today's Situation || Yesterday's Situation