It seems hard to imagine how this might possibly work, and it is impossible for Hamas to accept it.

Quote:

17/01/2009 - 21:26:57 Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert said tonight that Israel will unilaterally halt its 22-day Gaza offensive. Israeli leaders voted during an emergency security meeting this evening to stop fighting at 2am local time (midnight Irish time) but keep troops on the ground for the time being. But Hamas said it won’t respect the ceasefire as long as Israel remains inside Gaza. Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert said in a televised address that Israel's ``goals have been achieved, and even more''. More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the three weeks of violence, according to Palestinian and UN officials. Thirteen Israelis have also died.

Speaking of WP.

The Gazan women's account below* is truly chilling, particularly as it is a first hand account of the Israeli army firing white phosphorous shells at civilians.

A women was lying, for 13 hours, bleeding, in a building bulldozed by Israel war Bulldozers.

200 civilians, holding refuge in a nearby building, tried to help her. A women walked out into the line of fire to try to rescue the bleeding women.

They shot her in the leg and the hand.
She too lay bleeding for 8 hours. When the ambulance crew tried to rescue her the IDF would start firing on her and civilians with phosphorous shells.

* watch the video on theREALNewsNetwork ---(theREALNewsNetwork recieve no state or corporate funding)

The Real News Network - Gaza lives in ruins

Gaza lives in ruins

Guardian: Gazans from Khoza'a near Khan Younis were fired upon and forced to flee their homes

Channel 4 showed film tonight of Zeitun and some other villages and neighbourhoods that had been visited by the Israelis. The sheer devastation was more than I'd expected. Children were sitting with their mothers on heaps of rubble that had been their homes. A child on a heap said "even my school bag is gone". In each place, women had been shot by the soldiers. The water towers, mosques, gardens and cemeteries were smashed up.

Zeitun was where an extended family of a hundred was moved into a house by the soldiers and then shelled. 39 of them died and ambulances were not allowed to fetch the children left with their dead mothers.

It seems to be accepted now that there was little fighting from Hamas and less than 50 Hamas fighters were killed. The 15,000 heavily armed men in Hamas brigades turned out to be an Israeli fantasy.

So tonight, Tzipi Livni met the "EU Leaders" over dinner to discuss the future of Gaza. Everyone was there except Hamas, the elected leaders of Gaza.

For anyone sick enough - Raid Gaza (game).