UN chief reiterates call for immediate Gaza ceasefire

January 17th, 2009 GAZA - Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas vowed to continue fighting after Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip Saturday evening. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Saturday evening declared a unilateral ceasefire in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, beginning from 2 a.m.

January 17th, 2009 TEL AVIV/GAZA - Israeli troops came under fire by a group of Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip Sunday, only hours after the beginning of a unilateral ceasefire declared by Israel, an Israeli army spokeswoman said. The troops informed Israeli armoured units and air force which then shot at and hit the Palestinians, said the spokeswoman.

January 17th, 2009 JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Saturday evening declared a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in a press conference here.

January 17th, 2009 TEHRAN - A senior official at Iran's presidential office Sunday said that the unilateral ceasefire announced by Israel in Gaza was an admission of defeat, IRNA reported. Ali-Reza Zaker Isfahani, chairman of the Strategic Studies, said Israel's unilateral ceasefire indicated its absolute defeat.

January 17th, 2009 BEIRUT - A Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said Saturday if there is no Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and no lifting of siege there will be no ceasefire. Hamdan was speaking shortly before the Israeli security cabinet announced a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza.

January 17th, 2009 JERUSALEM - The Israeli military Sunday said it launched an airstrike to hit back at Gaza militants' rocket attacks earlier Sunday after the Jewish state announced a unilateral truce late Saturday night. A spokesman from the military said that Israeli aircraft hit the launchers in the Gaza Strip that had fired rockets into Israel.

January 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US and Israel signed a bilateral deal Friday to help curb arms smuggling to Gaza as part of an effort to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the memorandum of understanding would improve information sharing between the two countries to prevent the weapons from reaching Hamas in Gaza, one of Israel's chief goals in its three-week incursion into the Gaza Strip.

January 15th, 2009 KUWAIT CITY/DOHA - The head of militant Palestinian organisation Hamas' political bureau in Damascus, Khaled Meshaal, has said that the group will not accept any preconditions to a ceasefire by Israel in the Gaza Strip. Meshaal was speaking Friday before a meeting of Arab leaders in Qatar, adding that the Palestinian movement in Gaza 'had not suffered a defeat', and that they would therefore not accept any preconditions of the opponent.

January 13th, 2009 JERUSALEM - A senior Israeli defence official will visit Egypt Wednesday for talks over a possible ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a media report said. Amos Gilad, head of the Diplomatic Security Bureau of Israel's defence ministry, is scheduled to meet Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman for facilitating a talk with Hamas, Ynet news service reported.

January 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush Monday reiterated his call for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, insisting that Hamas stopping rocket attacks against Israel is a must.

January 11th, 2009 CAIRO - Former British prime minister and Middle East special envoy Tony Blair Monday said 'elements were in place' for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Speaking after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak in Cairo, Blair stressed that any agreement must be predicated on an end to weapons smuggling into Gaza and an end to the blockade of the territory.

January 8th, 2009 NEW YORK - The UN Security Council voted 14-0 late Thursday calling on Israel and Hamas to 'immediately' cease fire in the Gaza conflict. The statement said the ceasefire must be 'immediate, durable and fully respected ...

January 8th, 2009 PRAGUE - The European Union (EU) Thursday repeated its call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East after a UN driver bringing aid to Gaza was killed in Israeli fire. 'This is another gruesome incident after a UN-administered school was hit,' Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country chairs the EU until June 30, said in a statement.

January 6th, 2009 LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Tuesday described the fighting in Gaza as the 'darkest moment yet for the Middle East' but said he was hopeful that a ceasefire could be reached. 'We must work hard in the next few hours - and days - to reach a ceasefire,' Brown told reporters in Downing Street.

January 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Friday charged that Hamas is holding the people of Gaza hostage and warned that a ceasefire, to be acceptable, must be 'durable'. She said a 'durable and sustainable' ceasefire would be one that would not allow Hamas to 'continue to launch rockets out of Gaza'.