Israel eases Gaza border restrictions after truce

Palestinian fishermen prepare their boats in the port of Gaza on the Mediterranean coast, November 24, 2012, as a fragile truce between Israel and militant groups in Gaza enters its third day. Israel slammed Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas for his support for Gaza following its confrontation with the Jewish state, while casting aspersions on the legitimacy of his upcoming U.N. statehood bid. / MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Gaza residents said Saturday that Israel has eased some border restrictions as part of its truce with the Palestinian territory's Hamas rulers, allowing farmers to visit land near its security fence and letting fishermen head further out to sea.

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Gaza conflict cease-fire

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Will Gaza cease-fire last?

The Egyptian-brokered cease-fire ended eight days of cross-border fighting that claimed 166 Palestinian and six Israeli lives, according to health officials.

As part of the deal, Israel and Hamas are now to negotiate a further easing of the Gaza border blockade, first imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007.

Also Saturday, tens of thousands of Gaza children returned to school for the first time since fighting ended late Wednesday. About half of Gaza's 1.6 million people are children.

In 245 U.N.-run schools, the day was dedicated to letting children share what they experienced, in hopes of helping them deal with trauma, educators said.

In a sixth-grade class in Gaza City, boys eagerly raised their hands when asked by their science teacher to share their stories in the presence of a reporter. Mohammed Abu Sakr, 11, said that earlier this week, he witnessed an Israeli missile striking a car and engulfing it in flames. The boy said he had trouble sleeping and eating afterwards, and still feels scared.

Thirty-four children and minors under the age of 18 were among those killed in the fighting, said Gaza health officials and local human rights groups. A total of 156 Palestinians were killed during the fighting and 10 died later of their wounds, they said.

• Israel troops shoot dead Palestinian man in 1st cross-border incident to test Gaza cease-fire
• Israel says it arrests Tel Aviv bus bomber
• Cease-fire holds as both Hamas and Israel claim victory, but real work lies ahead
• Analysis: Success of Mideast cease-fire demands patience and forward-looking approach

The exchanges of fire were the bloodiest between Israel and Hamas in four years. Israel launched the offensive to put an end to escalating Gaza rocket fire on Israeli towns. Israel said it reached its objectives, while Hamas claimed victory because Israel didn't make good on threats to send ground troops into the territory, as it had done four years earlier.

Israel's air force carried out some 1,500 strikes on Hamas-linked targets, while Gaza militants fired roughly the same number of rockets, including some targeting the Israeli heartland cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time.

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Israel, Palestinians in deadly clashes

The truce is to lead to a new border deal for Gaza, with Egypt hosting indirect talks between Israel and Hamas. Israel has shunned Hamas as a terrorist group and refuses to negotiate with it directly.

Israeli demands that Hamas halt weapons smuggling into Gaza, while Hamas seeks free movement for people and goods in and out of Gaza.

After the Hamas takeover in 2007, Israel and then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak sealed Gaza to isolate the Islamic militants and make it harder for them to govern.

The restrictions have since been eased because of international pressure on Israel and because of regime change in Egypt. Both Hamas and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, elected earlier this year, are members of the region-wide Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Before the Nov. 14 start of the fighting, Gaza received most of its consumer goods through an Israeli cargo crossing, while Israel banned virtually all exports and travel from Gaza, preventing the area's battered economy from bouncing back.

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[Biggest_Lew]

Ya know - it's really cold where I live, but I SWEAR I hear a little gnat buzzing around!

Thought I slapped and killed it the other day, musta missed! Oh well - not worth the effort to slap it again. Think I'll just ignore it.

[Biggest_Lew]

Must be something wrong with CBS's chat engine. I keep getting this stupid post from DAYS ago!

LOL!

[Biggest_Lew]

Whip-whip-whip.... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... PLOP!

The sound of a troll dropping their SO TRANSPARENT lure in the water.

Just to be clear folks: slownews, posting__away, spinner_or_winner, and knsn_for_cmn_sense are all the same person.

Just check out the posting patterns, composition style, and the (ugh!) message. Ignore it, just an angry little gnat trying to get attention by buzzing in your ear!

Starve the ignorant troll!!!

[Biggest_Lew]

I know, consider the source! Slow aka spinner aka knsn aka posting...

Don't waste your effort, Chuck - you can't converse intelligently with someone who isn't.

Starve the ignorant troll!

[Biggest_Lew]

Anyone here ever play "Whack-A-Mole" at the amusement park?

LOL!

[Biggest_Lew]

Slow - so you're a Libertarian? That explains a lot, and I do not mean that derogatorily. In that case, perhaps I was hasty in my judgement of you.

(Rather off topic: Do you ever read Dale Brown? One of my guilty pleasures, Dale Brown techno-thrillers. One of his Patrick MacLanahan novels (I forget which one) features a strongly Libertarian president - actually (surprisingly) presented in a rather flattering manner).

Personally, I'm pretty liberal, but not a true libertarian. I find some aspects of it fascinating/attractive, but I just don't think some of the ideas - mainly isolationism - will work in today's world.

Tell you what, Slow. You want to discuss issues for a few, I'm game. Let's do each other the respect, though, of not trying to change the other's mind,'cuz THAT ain't happening! Let's make our points, agree to disagree, and move on.

You game?

[Biggest_Lew]

slownews replies:
A libertarian is not close to being a liberal, other than in personal freedoms.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Slow, check out the latest 2-AXIS (X and Y) charts of the "political spectrum". On one axis, Libertarianism is considered "progressive", while the other end of that same axis has Authoritarianism - which it typically characterized as "conservative". The OTHER axis is the Left (again, progressive) and Right (again, conservative).

So I'd say that Libertarianism has a lot more in common with liberalism than it does with conservatism.

I think you're talking about fiscal conservatism, which is a subsidiary point and not really addressed in the political spectrum.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Not a chance in hell you're getting off so lightly, considering your need to insult and commit ad hominem attacks.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
LOL - What are you gonna do, beat me up??

Lower your hackles there, killer! YOU started the personal attacks - I put up with several before I took the gloves off. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

I think it's a reasonable, adult offer: Do you want to discuss the issues in an adult, intelligent manner, or not? You said you are hear to learn about (not agree with - I get that) other viewpoints. Here's your chance to learn about one person's viewpoint.

Believe me, no skin off my nose either way. I don't think I take this stuff (bickering on a message board) nearly as seriously as YOU apparently do.

[Biggest_Lew]

Anyone else here notice the "tag-team" tactics, and similarity of viewpoints and methodology (cut & paste, change the subject, etc.) of certain posters here (let's call them "A" and "B")?

Kinda makes me wonder about their supposed identities...

I refuse to engage one dolt (poster "A"), and he eventually disappears.

"Poof" - immediately another poster comes along, sounding remarkably like the first (poster "B"). Then when I respond the a post by the second ("B"), "poof"! HE disappears, and now the original dolt ("A") is magically back in action, responding to my replies to poster "B"!

LOL!

Hope it's clear to any other enlightened posters here what THAT'S all about!

Kinda sleazy, don't y'all think? But certainly par for the course considering the source. Just listen to the hateful and short-sighted tripe...

[Biggest_Lew]

Stop wasting your typing energy.

I told you I was done with you. You are beneath my effort, an ignorant person with an evil agenda, silly enough to think that spouting rubbish on some message board will make a difference.

Ciao, loser.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Hey, this cut & paste trick is REALLY KEWL! Sure saves a lot of time & thought...

LOL!

[Biggest_Lew]

Amazing. There are people in 2012 who don't know that modern Israel was created by the United Nations - they think Israelis "stole" the land.

And as for the West Bank, Golan Heights, and Gaza Strip, those lands were lost by the Arabs during the '67 war, which the Arabs triggered through various hostile and provocative acts.

Now it's: "Oops, sorry. It was all a big mistake... please give us our land back"!

HAH!

Boo hoo, says I.

Here's what the Arabs must do: Agree to accept UN Resolution 181(II). Acknowledge Israel's right to exist. Stop the violence and terrorist acts.

Simple, isn't it?

[Biggest_Lew]

In fact, Israel occupied the entire Sinai peninsula after that war, right up to the Suez Canal. What did they do? They ceded it back to Egypt as a show of good faith.

Look what that's gotten them.

They (along with the Arabs) signed UN Resolution 242, the so-called "Land for Peace" document, in which Israel pledged to return the forfeit lands if the Arabs would do what I've said they should over and over: end all states of belligerency, respect the sovereignty of all states in the area, and acknowledge Israel's right to live in peace within secure, recognized boundaries.

That hasn't gone very far either, has it?

One side wants peace, the other wants to eradicate a peoples.

[Biggest_Lew]

You make your bed, you sleep in it.

[pinetreewest]

Nutanyahu is so transparent. Of course he love Hamas. He will now do anything to make Hamas look good. Even over look his own people being blown up. Hamas and Nutanyahu share a hatred of a two state solution, moderation, and hope of peace and all peace factions on both sides. As extremists, they must destroy and make impossible any middle position. Fatah and any Israel moderates must be buried politically and diplomatically. This is a great time for those who want final solutions ridden in blood.

The Nutanyahu faction and Hamas share the vision of one land, two people with one on top and the other on bottom (or eliminated). They only differ on which will be on top. They both believe in their nation winning the military finale: in the end, there can be only one.

Hamas believes Allah has granted them ultimate victory and demographics make them invincible. They say Israel falling just like the Crusader Kingdom before it, which had similar borders, and went down after 100 years despite vigorous efforts from the West to prop it up. Netanyahu and company believe he-who-must-not-be-name-except-on-high-holidays has done the same from them plus in a compliant America that can be tapped for unlimited and unconditional support and weaponry. Peace is for the weak.

[Biggest_Lew]

Just want to point out, folks: There's a person here who dominates the number of posts. This person has a particular agenda, obvious to all. This person is an intellectual coward, no stomach for debate - just makes silly claims and slings mud.

Don't be swayed by cowardly haters, and starve the troll.

[takacrat]

Looks like that Israel is trying Very Hard to make Peace with all that has tried to kill them in the past. Keep it up Israel, Peace will happen!

[Biggest_Lew]

Wish I shared your optimism, Tak. Unfortunately, it will take the Muslims to also want peace, something they've demonstrated over and over again that they have no intention of doing.

All they have to do is obey UN Resolution 181(II) and acknowledge Israel's right to exist, then leave Israel alone.

If they did those things, they'd have peace AND a Palestinian homeland in short order. That is obviously NOT what they want. Read the Hamas charter: They are sworn to the destruction of Israel.

[Biggest_Lew]

It's only a matter of time before the radical Muslim militants break the truce. Of course, Israel will respond. Then there will be an outcry over the "loss of innocent Palestinians" (human shields).

Ground hog day!

Same as it ever was!

The radical Muslims are so blinded by their hatred for Israel, they just cannot see the path to peace: Acknowledge Israel's right to exist, then leave Israel alone.

It's really quite simple, unless you're blinded by hatred towards Israel and Jews.