Beet
Atlas Star
Posts: 28,872
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« on: November 26, 2006, 12:15:57 AM » |
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Some good news from that front.
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By AMY TEIBEL and IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writers
JERUSALEM - A truce meant to end five months of deadly Israeli-Palestinian clashes went into effect throughout the Gaza Strip early Sunday, significantly bolstering hopes of coaxing moribund peace talks back to life.
The Israeli military said all troops were withdrawn from Gaza in the hours before the 6 a.m. cease-fire, announced late Saturday, took force. Dozens of tanks and armored vehicles were parked just over the border in a military staging ground in southern Israel early Sunday, and the streets of northern Gaza were empty.
The agreement was a coup for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as he tries to form a more moderate government than the one currently led by Islamic Hamas radicals. Abbas, a moderate from the Fatah Party elected separately last year, hopes a new government lineup will persuade the West to end crushing economic sanctions imposed after Hamas took power in March.
The truce was meant to halt rocket fire and other militant attacks on Israel from Gaza, and a military offensive Israel launched in the coastal strip in June, less than a year after ending its 38-year occupation. About half an hour before it took effect, Hamas militants said they fired two rockets at southern Israel. One hit a house, but caused no injuries, the military said.
The two sides announced the accord after Abbas telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert late Saturday to tell him he had arrived at an agreement with Palestinian factions to stop rocket fire and all other violence from Gaza. Olmert reciprocated by pledging to stop all Israeli military operations in Gaza and withdraw all troops there, aides to both leaders said.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said a truce reached in Egypt in February 2005 would be revived.
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