Israel Declares Cease-Fire in Gaza
Prime minister says goals have been achieved; Hamas vows to go on fighting.
JERUSALEM, Jan. 17, 2009— -- Israel tonight declared a unilateral cease-fire in its three-week-old offensive in Gaza, saying it had achieved its military goals, but Hamas has vowed to go on fighting.
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert announced that the cease-fire will go into effect at 2 a.m Sunday.
Olmert said Israel's offensive in Gaza has achieved all its goals, and said Hamas had been hit hard by the military action.
"The conditions have been created that our aims as declared were more than fully achieved," he said.
"Hamas has been badly beaten," Olmert said."Its leaders are in hiding, many of its members have been killed, its rocket factories have been destroyed, its smuggling routes through the tunnels have been blown up, its ability to move weapons in the Gaza Strip has been reduced and the launching sites where most of the rockets are fired are under Israeli military control."
The prime minister said, however, that the Israeli Army would stay in Gaza at least for the time being.
"If Hamas entirely ends its rocket fire on Israel, Israel will consider a withdrawal from the Gaza strip," he said.
At least 1,200 Palestinians have been killed, including 350 children, and 5,300 wounded, since the beginning of the Israeli military offensive on Dec 27, 2008.
Preliminary estimates of the cost of rebuilding top $1.6 billion, according to diplomatic sources.
Hamas representative in Lebanon Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera that the group will keep fighting the Israeli army.
"As long as the Israeli army continues to be in Gaza, the resistance will resume," he said.
The announcement of the cease-fire came hours after Egyptian President Husni Mubarak again urged Israel to stop its military offensive against Gaza immediately.
"I call on Israel today to cease its military operations," the Egyptian president said. "I call on Israel's leaders to cease the fire immediately and unconditionally."
Mubarak also said Israel's military offensive "deepens the outrage and the hate against Israel."
Timetable of Israel Withdrawal
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said a timetable for the withdrawal of Israeli army from Gaza should accompany the declaration of the Israeli cease-fire.
"This unilateral declaration should be accompanied by a timetable for Israeli withdrawal," he told reporters in Beirut, according to Reuters.
Israel and the United States signed a pact on Friday aimed at preventing the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. Both countries will assist each other through enhanced sharing of information and intelligence that would assist in identifying the origin and routing of weapons being supplied to Hamas and other organizations in Gaza.