(...) AMY GOODMAN: What about the agreement? What exactly does this ceasefire say?
MOHAMMED OMER: The ceasefire is a quite vague terminology. I have seen the document which the Egyptians have released. The term “ease the crossings” or “ease the blockade” is rather vague, and it’s a rather subjective term which I find very difficult to translate on the ground. If you go back a little bit, Amy, to May 2010, just after the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish attack—or, the attack on the Turkish flotilla, we do see how much Israel tried to get materials into the Gaza Strip, and “easing the blockade” back then was translated into allowing ketchup, shoelace, and even coriander to make falafel for the people of Gaza. I hope this is not going to be the case this time.
People are hopeful that this is going to be holding, but I am not quite confident that Israel is really willing to do that. If that’s the case, then we would be seeing all the commercial crossings and Rafah crossing will be open. But that has not been the case today. Palestinian fishermen are hoping to get inside further than the three miles that they have been restricted to by the Israeli military for the past period, but so far we haven’t heard any reports from the fishermen whether they were able to get inside further than six miles. So it’s all in the test mode, if you like, in the coming hours. We are trying to see how much of this is going to hold.
But the fact that it is really quite holding right now, that the ceasefire is still going on, and there is no fighting, which is a good chance for people to come back to their homes and to check on their relatives and to bury their loved ones and to go condolences. I have seen about—talking about condolences, there are hundreds of people who are running to mourning tents, from one to the other, and there are many people who don’t know who was lost. Some people who are living in the same neighborhood, who say, “Well, we don’t know that our neighbors have been killed, because we were under constant bombardment and attacks that we could not leave outside of our homes.”
AMY GOODMAN: Mohammed Omer, on Tuesday, the U.N. spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, welcomed the ceasefire but warned that any lasting solution must address the root causes of the conflict. This is what he said.
STÉPHANE DUJARRIC: Any peace effort that does not tackle the root causes of the crisis will do little more then set the stage for the next cycle of violence. Gaza must be brought back under one legitimate Palestinian government, adhering to the PLO commitments. The blockade of Gaza must end. Israel’s legitimate security concerns must be addressed. The United Nations stands ready to support efforts to address the structural factors of conflict between Israel and Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: What does this position of the United Nations mean for the people of Gaza, Mohammed Omer?
MOHAMMED OMER: But this position is not new. If we are talking about eight years ago, this is the same position exactly. The United Nations have called on Israel to end the blockade in Gaza, to make life possible for the Palestinians. But now it’s really up to Israel. It’s Israel who will decide whether the Gaza Strip should be opened or not.
I mean, talking about six miles, this is not enough, when I talk to fishermen. This is absolutely not enough. Basically, Palestinians for the last few years have been fishing an area which is virtually fished out, in fact. So, people are fishing within three miles just for the last few years, and now they are extended another three miles. I’m sure they will be shot at in the coming days.
People say that this is going to be a quite shaky ceasefire, given that there is no guarantee. It’s only Egypt that guarantees all these issues. If you remember, in November 2012, the United States of America, they were on this agreement of ceasefire. President Morsi, back then, and several Arab states and European Union were supporting the ceasefire. And it did not really hold for more than two years. So what are we expecting, this ceasefire to hold for more than a year now? I’m quite doubting that.(...)