The UN failed to force them to do it, but after over a further week of death and destruction the Israelis are prepared after talks with Egypt to vote on whether to declare a unilateral ceasefire on Gaza later today.
It is all very much like the talks in Northern Ireland as while both parties are in Cairo they appear not to have been in talks with each other but with Egypt acting as a intermediary. These were the talks that America wanted to see how they progressed when they abstained on the UN security councils resolution. As with Northern Ireland there are conditions from both sides. Hamas obviously want the Israelis to stop their occupation of Gaza and the end of the blockade. Israel insist that any further rockets being fired will bring an immediate end to their agreement of a ceasefire. Of course it doesn't say what Palestine should be expected to do should the Israelis launch an attack themselves without any rockets being fired.
There is talk from Hamas that they will not currently accept the Israeli conditions due to the maintained suppression through control of their boundaries. Even with all the destruction of their homes the Palestinians do not want to give up and hand over too much to Israel who have been extremely heavy handed and aggressive in their treatment of this situation over the weeks.
So far 1,155 Palestinians have been killed and 5,015 injured against 13 Israelis dead, and 223 wounded in the three weeks of this latest conflict.
Israel unilaterally declared a ceasefire yesterday. Of course it quickly vanished when Hamas fired five rockets into Israel. Hamas does not want to cease fire unless it is on their therms. They are concerned about looking defeated in the eyes of the Arab world. In truth, they have been defeated from a military standpoint. The vanishing Israeli cease fire
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