Israel, Hamas to cease fire

Jerusalem/ New York: The Israeli government has agreed to a mutual ceasefire with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, proposed by Egypt, that would put an end to 11 days of rocket strikes on Israel and IDF bombardment of Gaza, as Pakistan asked the UN General Assembly to deploy international force in the occupied territories.

Foreign media reported that Israel has accepted the Egyptian-mediated ceasefire proposal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed on Thursday. National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat was authorised to start talks with Egypt on the ceasefire initiative, to work out the details and the starting date, Israeli media reported. The truce will be "mutual and unconditional," the Israeli cabinet said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have confirmed in a statement that they will observe the ceasefire. Earlier, Reuters cited a Hamas official who said a “mutual and simultaneous” truce with Israel will begin at 4am Pakistani time on Friday.

One Israeli reporter said that a ceasefire of sorts may already be in effect, as no rockets had been fired from Gaza for 90 minutes already. However, air raid sirens began to sound in southern Israel shortly afterwards.

Earlier US President Joe Biden spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi about the ceasefire efforts. "We have seen reports of a move toward a potential ceasefire. That's clearly encouraging," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington.

"We believe the Israelis have achieved significant military objectives that they laid out to achieve, in relation to protecting their people and to responding to the thousands of rocket attacks from Hamas," Psaki said. "So that's why in part that we feel they're in a position to start winding their operation down," she said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously said that the Israeli operations would continue until the objective of restoring “quiet and security” was achieved, while Hamas insisted that talks about a ceasefire could only start when Israel ended “its aggression in Jerusalem and its bombardment of Gaza.”

Meanwhile, in the US, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) brought up in the Senate a resolution proposed by a group of House Democrats, seeking to block the previously approved sale of $735 million-worth of bombs and munitions to Israel. The sale was green-lit by the State Department before the outbreak of hostilities earlier this month.

Earlier on Thursday, Pakistan urged the UN General Assembly to call for a halt to the Israeli aggression in Gaza and demanded concrete steps to safeguard the besieged Palestinians, including deployment of an international protection force in the occupied territories.

"We should deploy an international protection force," Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi told a special session of the 193-member Assembly, pointing out that such a force was called for in the General Assembly Resolution ES-10/20 and demanded by the Islamic Summit Conference on May 18, 2018.

"It is appalling that the (UN) Security Council has been unable to exercise its primary responsibility for maintenance of international peace and security," he said, noting that the 15-member body had even failed to demand cessation of hostilities.

"Those preventing the Council from doing so bear a heavy responsibility," Qureshi said in an obvious reference to the repeated blocking by the United States of a statement calling for an end to the hostilities on the ground that such a move would interfere with the Biden administration's attempts to stop the fighting.

"If the Security Council cannot agree to send the protection force, a 'coalition of the willing' can be formed to provide at least civilian observers to monitor cessation of hostilities and supervise provision of humanitarian help to the Palestinians," Qureshi added.

"In these circumstances, the General Assembly must assume its own responsibility. We must not fail the Palestinian people at this critical juncture," the foreign minister declared. Qureshi is on the Palestine peace mission on the special instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Speaking from the rostrum of the iconic General Assembly Hall, Qureshi drew the attention of the high-level delegates to the heart-rending situation in Palestine amid brutal Israeli bombardment.

"As we speak, children, women and men in Palestine are being killed with impunity," he said, pointing out that over 250 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured -- one-third are women and children.

"Death echoes in every home in Gaza," he said in a passionate speech. "Hundreds of such tragedies are being enacted every hour in Gaza and other parts of the Palestinian territories.

"So far, over 50,000 Palestinians have fled their homes in Gaza. There is limited access to water, food, hygiene, and health services. Hospitals and access to water and sanitation services depend on electricity. Fuel for the power plants has almost run out. Gaza is plunged in darkness: literally and metaphorically," he said, pointing out that the only light was that of Israeli explosions.

"This is Palestine, where — in full view of the world — the Israeli air strikes bring down entire buildings to kill and terrorize innocent Palestinians and even silence the media. "It is time to say enough," he said.

"The voice of the Palestinian people cannot and will not be silenced," the foreign minister said. "We, the representatives of the Islamic world, are here to speak with them and for them.

"In his well-reasoned speech, Qureshi said there was no moral or military equivalence between the beleaguered and occupied Palestinian people, who had no army, no navy, no air force, and the Israeli war-machine — one of the most powerful in the world.

"This is a war between a military occupier and an occupied people. It is a conflict between illegal occupation and a legitimate struggle for self-determination," he added.

The foreign minister called for mobilizing all possible humanitarian help for the devastated Palestinian population in Gaza and other parts of the occupied territories. In addition to the UNRWA emergency appeal, he urged the secretary-general to launch a comprehensive humanitarian assistance plan to provide succor and sustenance to the Palestinians.

"We need to send medical teams, medicines and other supplies, food and other necessities to Gaza and other parts of the occupied Palestinian territories," he said, welcoming the access being provided by Egypt to Gaza.

"Israel must open all the access points to Gaza to ensure timely and urgent delivery of international assistance," Qureshi added. He also called on the UN secretary-general and the high commissioner for human rights to offer protection to Israel’s Arab citizens, who were being lynched and murdered by fascist Israeli gangs at the present time.

"The General Assembly should condemn: Israel's forcible and illegal eviction of Palestinians, including in Al-Jarrah district of Jerusalem and continued construction of Jewish settlements; the onslaught against Palestinians worshipers in Haram Al Sharif and Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first Qibla of Islam, during the month of Ramazan; and Israel's brutal and indiscriminate aerial and land bombardment of Gaza.

"Israel's crimes against humanity should not escape accountability," Qureshi said. "There should be no impunity for violation of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention and other human rights Conventions.”

He also called for reviving concrete efforts to end Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories and to dismantle the illegal settlements and the apartheid-like regime Israel had imposed in the occupied territories.

"The General Assembly should secure unconditional implementation of resolution 242 of November 1967 in which the Security Council declared the ''inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war'' and demanded that Israel withdraw its armed forces from territories occupied in the 1967 war.

"It is, therefore, imperative to initiate bold steps to secure the implementation of the Security Council and General Assembly resolutions calling for establishment of a viable, independent and contiguous Palestinian State with Al-Quds Al Sharif as its capital.

Pakistan endorses President Abbas’ call for an international conference to secure a peaceful settlement. "The Palestine tragedy is at the heart of the turmoil and conflicts in the Middle East.

It is also the principal root cause of humiliation and anger in the Muslim and Arab world - anger which breeds extremism and often spawns acts of violence," the foreign minister said. "A just solution for Palestine is imperative for maintenance of regional and global peace and security," he said, underscoring that the onus for restoring peace rested on Israel.

"It must end its occupation; it must implement the resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly. "This General Assembly session must send a clear message to the Palestinian people and to Israel," Qureshi said.

"It is only through determined and decisive action that this Assembly can restore the credibility of the United Nations and demonstrate its effective role in preserving world peace and global order based on equity and justice."