HOWEVER... I am not seeing detailed info. on it. There was this:
The head of Hamas' political bureau and Islamic Jihad secretary-general plan to meet with Egyptian intelligence chief Gen. Raafat Shehata again on Tuesday, in an attempt to finalize details of a cease-fire agreement. The talks in Cairo, which are being led by Shehata, are expected to be decisive. The Israeli delegates to the talks plan to return to Cairo today to present Israel's response to demands being made by Hamas. Senior Egyptian officials told Haaretz that the sides are very close, but that some more flexibility is needed from the Israeli side.YNET is reporting it on their news feed but there as well... there are no details. At the same there seems to be an active trade of fire into the evening as both sides are "Getting their shots" in, while they can.
The German FM met with officials in Egypt after meeting with government officials in Israel and it is thought that the Germans are able to present Israeli amendments and concerns for the cease-fire.
YNET is also reporting that in a MENA story the Egyptian President Morsi was saying:
"President Mohamed Morsi announced that the farce of Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip will end on Tuesday," MENA said, quoting public remarks made by the country's head of state after the funeral of his sister.
"The efforts to conclude a truce between the Palestinian and Israeli sides will produce positive results in the next few hours," he was quoted as saying.Egypt has been trying to mediate a truce to end the conflict.There was this:
6:14 P.M. Hamas official: Gaza truce to be declared at 9 P.M., go into effect midnight, Israel time (Avi Issacharoff)As of Right now:
7:01 P.M. Israeli official says truce deal with Gaza militants not yet finalized, 'ball still in play' (Barak Ravid)On a personal note... I do very much hope for a cease fire, but, I more hope that the ceasefire will lead to some kind of permanent solution. Simply put, "kicking the can down the road" just doesn't and will not work. BOTH sides need to understand this. How many more people need to die, or how many more people need to have their lives wrecked by PTSD caused by this fighting?
In any case - please stay tuned and I will try to keep this updated as I see more info.
UPDATE 7:35 PM: 7:35 P.M. Palestinian and Egyptian officials are now saying that there is still no agreement on a cease-fire. (Haaretz)
10:58 AM PT: Hamas is claiming it will "Continue FIring until the Last Moment". I would expect the Israelis have the same philosophy
12:02 PM PT: CEASE FIRE IS OFF! ACCORDING TO YNET: Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq twitted that Egypt is the only one that can announce a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the factions in Gaza. Any statements made about such a deal prior to an official announcement is irresponsible, he said. (Elior Levy)
12:13 PM PT: From: http://www.ynetnews.com/...
Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq twitted that an agreement over a ceasefire between Israel and the factions in Gaza has yet to be reached, adding that such a deal won't be struck on Tuesday night. (Roi Kais)
12:23 PM PT: Haaretz Reporting: 10:09 P.M. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Israel, to hold joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 11 P.M. (Haaretz) http://www.haaretz.com/...
12:46 PM PT: From Haaretz: 10:25 P.M. Hamas postpones planned Cairo press conference on cease-fire with Israel (Avi issacharoff)
I'm a little confused by the time. If a ceasefire goes into effect on at "midnight", what time is that on the East Coast?
ReplyDelete5 PM EST - 2 PM PST.
ReplyDeleteI'm familiar with the difference between Pacific and Eastern time zones. I just wasn't sure which timezone "midnight" referred to and what time that corresponded to in the US.
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