Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire that suspended Operation Cast Lead on Saturday night, ending the three-week operation, and throwing the ball into Hamas’ court. The cease fire went into effect at 2am local time and later Sunday morning was still being upheld..
Olmert's announcement followed a three-hour emergency meeting of the 12-member security cabinet Saturday night that approved the cease-fire by a vote of 7-2, with one abstention. Israel will stop its offensive but IDF forces will remain inside Gaza for an additional period of time in order to see how Hamas responds to Israel’s unilateral decision, Shortly after Israel’s announcement 8 Kassam rockets were fired at southern Israel.
Today, we face you again and can say that the conditions have been created so that our targets, as defined when we launched the operation have been fully achieved, and more so, the Prime Minister said. "Hamas was hit hard, both its military capabilities and its governing infrastructure," Olmert said. Olmert said that according to the assessments of all the security services,"Hamas's capabilities have been struck a heavy blow, which will harm its ability to rule and its military capabilities for some time."
The return of kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit was not a condition of the cease-fire, though both Olmert and Defense Misnister Ehud Barak pledged to continue working unceasingly for his release
Olmert said that prior to convening the security cabinet he received a phone call from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak describing Egypt's cease fire proposal. Egypt said Olmert has been instrumental in its attempts to restore calm to the region.
Barak said there were likely to be continued rocket attacks on Israel and IDF forces in the immediate aftermath of the cease-fire, and that the army was prepared to deal with that eventuality. Hamas, meanwhile has said it was not obligated by the unilateral declaration. Israel’s move came just a day after Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and outgoing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed a memorandum of understanding in which the United States pledges to help Israel fight against terror and agrees to increase intelligence security and intelligence cooperation with Israel and enforce mechanisms against providing support for Hamas and other terrorist organizations,
