Gaza Ceasefire Agreed
A ceasefire has been achieved between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, starting at 7:00 p.m. GMT, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr said on Wednesday.
“These efforts … have resulted in understandings to cease fire and restore calm and halt the bloodshed that the last period has seen,” Reuters quoted Amr as saying at a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Tel Aviv has agreed to give the Egyptian ceasefire initiative “a chance,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
That would “provide an opportunity to stabilize the situation and calm it before any more forceful action would be necessary,” he said.
At least 18 people were injured when an explosion hit a bus in central Tel Aviv earlier on Wednesday, Israeli police said.
A spokesperson for the Islamist group Hamas said it welcomed the bombing as a “natural response” to the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, but said it was not behind the attack.
In Israel, politicians including deputy parliamentary speaker said the bombing meant Israel had no choice but to invade Gaza.
Around 140 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s eight-day air and naval attack on Hamas-ruled Gaza, officials say. Gaza’s health ministry says many children are among the Palestinian dead.
Israel says it began its attack on the city of 1.7 million in response to a surge in rocket attacks from Gaza.
Palestinian rockets continued to hurtle toward Israeli towns and cities on Wednesday, but most were knocked down by the sophisticated Iron Dome air defense system. Israel says five people have been killed by Palestinian rockets in the last eight days.
An Israeli Defense Forces spokesman said on Twitter that Hamas members had celebrated on the streets of Gaza as news of the bus bombing broke.
The bombing comes amid frantic negotiations to end the violence.
The United States condemned the bus bombing.
“The United States strongly condemns this terrorist attack and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the people of Israel,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the situation in Gaza “deeply alarming” after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas called on Israel to “halt” its “criminal” attacks on Gaza, after which, he said, Hamas would follow suit.
Israeli Defense Forces said they had attacked Hamas government buildings overnight, as well as over 50 of what a spokesperson described as “terror sites.”
Israel has massed tens of thousands of troops on the border with Gaza, but has said it will give diplomatic efforts a chance before issuing the order to invade. Tel Aviv is demanding the cessation of rocket fire from Gaza as the main condition for a truce.
Israel’s last invasion of Gaza, in 2008-2009, killed 1,400 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians. Thirteen Israelis died in the 22-day-long Operation Cast Lead.
A Haaretz-Dialog poll taken on Sunday indicated that 84% of the Israeli public supports the military campaign, with 12% opposing it. But only 30% would support a ground offensive in Gaza, the pollster reported.
Tension in Cairo after Clashes between Police, Protesters
A demonstration to mark the first anniversary of casualties from street battles last year has turned into clashes between protesters and riot police.
According to official reports, at least 61 people have been injured, including protesters and policemen, in recent clashes in this Egyptian capital. Police used tear gas and fired pellets against demonstrators.
Clashes began when riot police units prevented protesters from marching from areas surrounding Tahrir Square to the headquarters of the Parliament Upper Chamber, to express their rejection of the drafting of a new Constitution by the Constituent Assembly.
Religious, labor, secular and left wing party delegates have abandoned the assembly in protest to what they call atempts from Islamic group representatives to impose their comments on Parliament’s Upper Chamber.
The debate on the topic has increased in the last few weeks in relation to the illegal nature of the Constituent Assembly becasue it was chosen by the Parliament Lower Chamber, dissolved in June this year by the Supreme Military Council. Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi tried to revert the decision as soon as he took power in June this year, but the Constitutional Supreme Court reconfirmed the decision of the military junta, which ruled Egypt after the resignation of former president Hosni Mubarak. While tension increases in the areas surrounding Tahrir Square, organizations and parties called for protests on Friday.
Latin Am/Caribbean’s Infant Mortality Declines More Than Half
The infant mortality rate for children under five fell for Latin America and the Caribbean from 54 to 23 deaths per 1,000 live births over the last 10 years, a PAHO/WHO report says.
If this trend continues, the region will reach the Millennium Development Goals of reducing the mortality rate among children under five by two thirds by 2015, the report said.
However, there are still huge disparities among regional countries and sometimes within them, the document from the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) states, which calls for increased efforts to prevent and reduce mortality in that population group.
For example, in 2011, Haiti and Bolivia had mortality rates of 87 and 51 deaths per 1,000 live births respectively, compared with 19 in Colombia, eight in Chile, and six in Cuba, the text adds.
Via PL