Israel, Hamas agree to extend Gaza ceasefire by 120 hours

[azurnoir]

Source: Ynet

The head of the Palestinian delegation, Azzam al-Ahmed, on Wendesday night confirmed that a new ceasefire agreement had been reached. Despite contradictory claims regarding the fate of the talks, he said, the sides wanted to give the negotiations more time and thus chose to extend the lull.

"We have agreed on a ceasefire for five days," said al-Ahmed, noting that there had been "significant progress" in a final agreement, but that disagreements remained over the wording on security arrangements, reconstruction efforts for the Gaza Strip and the permissible fishing zone for Gazans.

The Palestinian team was expected to head to Ramallah on Thursday for consultations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, before returning to Egypt on Saturday to resume talks, Palestinian officials said.

Egyptian sources said that, "We need more time in order to reach an agreement. Each side is being stubborn with some of the disputed points."

A Palestinian official said that US President Obama had intervened and that renewed efforts were underway to reach a long term deal.

Read more: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4558451,00.html

[intaglio]

1. But, but ...

The groupies here said that Israel could not deal whilst there were missiles being fired

[another_liberal]

2. The dawn of sanity?

Or just a temporary relapse into sane behavior.

(sigh)

[Fred Sanders]

3. Is that the same as 5 days? YNET have an hourly "ceasefire clock"?

[karynnj]

4. I had to do the math too - not sure why it was written that way other than to show how short it is