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A GAZA STRIP ceasefire came into effect early today, an Egyptian source and a senior Islamic Jihad official told AFP, following a spike in violence and bloodshed in the Palestinian enclave.
The “ceasefire agreement comes as a result of Egypt’s efforts” and has been endorsed by “Palestinian factions including Islamic Jihad”, said the top Egyptian official. An Islamic Jihad source confirmed the agreement to AFP.
According to the official, the agreement stipulates that Palestinian factions must ensure a return to calm in Gaza and “maintain peace” during demonstrations, while Israel must stop hostilities and “ensure a ceasefire” during demonstrations by Palestinians.
The agreement, which entered into force at 5.30am (3.30am Irish time), came after the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip rose to 34 since Tuesday after Palestinian officials said eight members of the same family had been killed.
Following the targeted killing of a top militant in Gaza, the two sides had been exchanging fire since Tuesday, and Israel’s military said it recorded more than 350 incoming rockets.
The Israeli military had been targeting what it said were Islamic Jihad militant sites and rocket-launching squads in the coastal enclave.
Eight members of the Abu Malhous family, including five children and two women, were killed in an Israeli strike on their family home in Deir al-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian health ministry said, updating an earlier toll of six deaths.
The previous day, Israel said it targeted two Islamic Jihad militants preparing to fire anti-tank missiles.
Air raid sirens wailed and fireballs exploded as air defence missiles intercepted rockets, sending Israelis rushing to bomb shelters.
In Gaza, residents surveyed damage and mourned the dead outside a mortuary and at funerals.
Nickolay Mladenov, the UN envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, arrived in Cairo on Wednesday afternoon, airport officials said, following reports he was to hold talks aimed at halting the fighting.
The UN and Egypt were instrumental in mediating previous ceasefires between Israel and Gaza-based militants.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said Islamic Jihad must stop its rocket attacks or “absorb more and more blows”.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Musab al-Barayem had said the group was not interested in mediation as it retaliated over the killing of one of its commanders.
Israel killed senior Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu al-Ata and his wife Asma in a targeted strike early Tuesday, prompting barrages of tit-for-tat rocket fire and air strikes.
According to Israel, Ata was responsible for rocket fire at Israel as well as other attacks and was planning more violence, with the military calling him a “ticking bomb”.
The flare-up raised fears of a new all-out conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, who have fought three wars since 2008.
350 rockets
There have been no Israeli deaths, though one rocket narrowly missed cars on a busy highway.
Israeli medics said they had treated 48 people for light wounds, while schools were closed in areas near the Gaza border for a second day running.
In a sign it was seeking to avoid a wider conflict, Israel’s announced targets were confined to Islamic Jihad sites and not those belonging to Hamas.
It normally holds Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip, responsible for all rocket fire from the enclave as the territory’s de facto rulers.
“For the first time in the current era, Israel drew a distinction between Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” commentator Ben Caspit wrote in Israeli newspaper Maariv.
“By so doing, Israel deviated from its iron-clad principle that Hamas, as the sovereign power in Gaza, has to pay the price for any action taken by anyone in the Gaza Strip. That is now no longer the case.”
Ronni Shaked of the Harry Truman Research Institute for Peace in Jerusalem agreed that the move was a first for Israel.
“Now the fight is just against the Islamic Jihad, not against Hamas,” he said.
Islamic Jihad is the second-most-powerful militant group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas and has taken responsibility for rocket fire.
Hamas, however, said it would not abandon its ally.
“As long as the Israeli warplanes bomb the Gaza Strip, the resistance will respond to the Israeli aggression and defend the Palestinian people,” a joint statement from Gaza militant groups said.
The flare-up came at a politically sensitive time for Israel, with no new government in place after September elections ended in deadlock.
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This would definitely ensure that many small businesses would fold.
While they force up rates for business too, some up by 75%. Enda Kenny is killing Irish business but you are all to blind to see it.
A lot of lazy idiots will simply take the piss and take a load of sick in a row, knowing well the employer cant do anything about it.
I think most decent workers who don’t currently have a sick pay entitlement in work would only use it if they really needed it.
I’ve never heard such rubbish. There are no advantages in this to be had by an employee. In fact all this legislation does is give an employer another reason to lower wages even more. It also encourages infighting between healthy and sick employees.
I’d definitely be leaving at least one person go when this comes in. Government just don’t get it do they?….small businesses are on the cross at the moment and are treading water at best. This must be one of the most anti business measures they’ve brought it.
Well we do know the Government are dumb enough to be thinking about it…
Lets see how many jobs they create after this comes in….its serious enough to make a multi national company choose another location over Ireland
Hair brained scheme. Reckless carry on from our Government. SME’s would implode.
Corrupt, sleazy, reckless private sector mismanagement in the economy threatens 100% of us all
I think you mean public sector…
Kingstown the private sector create the wealth like it or not & if we ever get out of this we will have the private sector to thank for it.
The private sector does don’t create wealth the consumer does
So would that mean no more P.A.Y.E contribution? Nah dont think so!
I love these soundbites everyday coming up to the budget…..
Sad times for the PAYE employee.
What about the employer who can’t even get benefit if the company closes??
This nonsense is the law in France and cripples small businesses and as a result small businesses avoid hiring anybody other than family. A little restaurant I used to go to had 3 waitresses employed, 2 were “on the sick”. When the third did the same, the man’s wife became the waitress. They won’t employ anyone else in a long time.
This is an excellent idea. It is right wing crap to suggest workers would deliberately go sick. There will always be a tiny number but the overwhelming majority would never do such a thing. I am a public servant with decent sick pay provision and have not taken any sick days this year (as I haven’t been sick!). The private sector will see similar stories to me and my colleagues. It is anti-worker drivel to suggest otherwise. If people take the piss, deal with them through the disciplinary procedures
I’m guessing you do not have employees? Trust me, the piss gets taken.
Ridiculous law and more smoke and mirror games by the shambles of a government.
Its all part of the FG plan, divide and conquer. And people wonder why there are no protests? We are all arguing over this crap while the country is destroyed further.
a strategy known as it’s “the roman circus”
Right wing crap ? Really , and are you aware of the appalling track record of some of the public sector levels of sick …for example the health system as highlighted in the following article recently to illustrate
..”Staff in the ‘other patient and client care’ category had some of the highest absenteeism rates across the hospital system, reaching 15.63 per cent in Drogheda. Nursing absenteeism rates meanwhile varied from 0.4 per cent in St James’s Hospital to 11.17 per cent in Lourdes Orthopaedic.
The place for the government to start tackling real abuse in the sick system is its own front door as the public service employer , by hurting RTE really small business with 2 or 3 people which this does is crazy timing as they are struggling far more in a recession
Not RTE…..should read The really small business
As an employer take my word for it, this proposal will cost jobs and increase demand on social welfare. Nothing will be saved by dept of social protection as in the case of my business the cost of sick pay will have to be made up for in reduction in overall pay bill by reduction in numbers or more part-time working.
BTW, this is regardless of whether the cases are genuine or people “take the piss”
This government are brain dead if they don’t realise how many small businesses will have to close if they persist with this lunacy .
This must mean that 42% of Business were always unviable and were merely existing because of the PAYE sector
have your say