Video: Israel breaks ceasefire, kills and wounds civilians trying to return to N Gaza

Netanyahu discards agreement despite release of female occupation soldiers

Israel has flagrantly breached its supposed ‘ceasefire’ in Gaza, firing upon civilians – including many women and children – as they waited to return to their home areas in northern Gaza as provided in the agreement. At least one person was murdered and at least three injured:

People were reportedly setting up tents ready to wait quietly for the ok to cross the so-called ‘Netzarim corridor’ dividing northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip when occupation troops opened fire without warning, despite four female soldiers being released earlier in the day as agreed.

The terms of the first phase of the ceasefire deal state that Israel will:

• withdraw its forces from Gaza’s population centres to areas no more than 700 metres (2,297 feet) inside Gaza’s border with Israel.
• allow civilians to return to their homes in the enclave’s besieged north and allow a surge of aid into the enclave of up to 600 trucks per day.

Tamer Qarmout, associate professor of public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera that the refusal ‘goes back to Israel’s original intention of this war’:

When the war kicked off, the idea of expelling the people of Gaza into Egypt and emptying the Strip was at the centre of Israel’s strategy. They started this experiment in the north because it hosts one of the largest refugee camps- the Jabalia refugee camp – which been a symbol of resistance.

[Because this plan collapsed] Israel was stuck with cornering people in a small enclave in central Gaza. The main goal here is to get the land without the indigenous population. By shooting at the crowd gathered in the Netzarim Corridor waiting for permission to cross into northern Gaza, Israel has once again showed who’s in charge.

Netanyahu is now said to be demanding the unscheduled release of a further female soldier, Arbel Yehoud, before Israel will allow people to cross back into northern Gaza – yet another example of the Israeli PM changing agreed terms after the fact. Yehoud is scheduled for release in a week’s time.

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