In These New Times

18/01/2009 As its history has always showed that it never binds itself to a treaty, neither respects any decision, Israel on Sunday resumed attacking the Palestinian civilians despite its unilateral ceasefire announced by its Prime Minister Ehud Olmert late Saturday. 
 
An eight-year old girl, identified as Nagham Al-Masri, was killed on Sunday in Beit Hanoun after Israeli occupation troops shot her northern Gaza with three of her family members. And another 20-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by occupation soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip, becoming the first fatality since Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire. 

 
Maher Abu Rajila died after being shot in the chest as he was travelling in a vehicle near the town of Khan Yunis, medics said. News of his death came shortly after Palestinian medics took advantage of the halt in Israel’s aggression on Gaza to rush to areas which had been inaccessible due to furious fighting. At least 95 bodies, including those of several children, were pulled from the rubble, mostly in the northern towns of Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya, bringing the overall toll from Israel’s 22-day offensive 1300, including over 420 children and over 5450 others wounded.
 
Israeli occupation troops and Palestinian resistance fighters exchanged fire in northern Gaza on Sunday. Resistance fighters opened fire at an Israeli occupation army infantry patrol near the Jabalya refugee camp. 
 
The occupation troops returned fire, the army said, also directing artillery and aircraft to strike back. 
 
While Israel’s “unilateral ceasefire” in Gaza went into effect at 2 am Sunday, the Israeli security establishment estimated Saturday night that Hamas would continue to fire rockets and mortars toward the country’s southern region in the coming days to prove that they “have the “last word in the conflict. 
 
Sources close to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the security establishment is gearing up for possible escalation in Gaza and has drawn up operational plans in case “Hamas violates the truce”. 
 
Hamas officials said late Saturday that it reserves the right to continue resisting Israel “with all means” if Tel Aviv does not follow up its ceasefire with a withdrawal from Gaza and lifting the blockade on the territory. 
 
But officials said that the clashes did not necessarily mean a return to all-out fighting. “There will no doubt be isolated incidents,” Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said. “It will take two to three days for everything to end completely, for Hamas to understand that we are now in a new scenario.”
 
During the course of the Israeli aggression, schools, hospitals, UN compounds and thousands of homes all came under attack with the Palestinian Authority putting the cost of damage to infrastructure alone at 476 million dollars.