Gazans, Israelis react to truce
Posted: Friday, June 20, 2008 3:38 PM
By Lawahez Jabari, NBC News Producer
JERUSALEM – The truce concluded this week by Hamas and Israel in their ongoing struggle has received generally favorable reaction from both Palestinians and Israelis.
“Gazans are happy and comfortable with the truce," said Dr Naji Shurab, a political scientist from Al-Azhar University in Gaza City. “All what we want is to be able to have food, gas and to travel – no more killing."
The cease-fire would end Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli targets and would ease Israel's blockade of Gaza, a 144-square-mile coastal strip that it is home to about 1.5 million people. The Israeli pressure began after Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006 and took over control of the area. (The other Palestinian area, the West Bank, is run by the rival Fatah organization.)
According to Dr Shurab, life for Gaza's people has been miserable. “The blockade has affected all sectors in our life,” he said. “We have food shortages, gas and fuel shortages. We are stuck in this jail, dying every day.”
A recent poll showed that 83 percent of Israelis believe that Hamas has gotten stronger since the pressure was imposed, 68 percent think that Israel's security has deteriorated, and 79 percent believe that the closure primarily affects the civilian population in Gaza. (The survey was conducted by independent pollster Dahlia Scheindlin and commissioned by the human rights groups Gisha-Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.)
If the truce holds, Israel says it will ease its blockade in stages. Negotiations, meanwhile, will resume on release of an Israeli soldier held for two years by the Hamas military wing and on opening the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
During the past year Dr, Shurab hasn’t been able to travel to attend conferences or see his family in Egypt. "Without opening the Rafah crossing,” he said, “Our life is painful."
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, said he could not predict whether the truce would last "two days or two months."
"Historically, we are on a collision course with Hamas. But it still makes sense to grasp this opportunity," Barak said
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh voiced confidence that all factions would respect the truce. (Hamas rules Gaza but smaller armed groups have in the past defied its ceasefire calls)
Dr. Shurab, however, is pessimistic. “It will not last,” he said. “The truce choice is not an agreement between two political sides, but it is between two enemies."
On the other side of the Gaza-Israel border, Nomika Zion is more positive.
“It is the most happy day since seven years,” she said. “People in Sderot were traumatized by Alqassam rockets -- there was no normal life. Our life is back now, we can live normal life.”
“During the last year,” she added, “many Shabbat dinners were left on tables and children were running away. My mother couldn't succeed in taking her shower."
Still, given the fact that this is the fifth truce she has seen, Zion is not entirely convinced things will work out. “I don't trust Israeli government or Hamas.”
