The declaration of cease-fire by Israel is a sham and meant to score political points for the racist jews. On the ground reality stays the same as it has been for the past fifty four years. The Palestinean people continue to suffer.
http://www.palestine-info.com
Occupied Jerusalem - Israeli occupation troops continued for the fifth consecutive day to impose a hermetic blockade on population centers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, suffocating the estimated 3.2 million Palestinian population already decimated by eight months of sustained Israeli repression.
The Israeli occupation army erected roadblocks, manned by trigger-happy soldiers, on intersections throughout the West Bank and Gaza to prevent and turn back Palestinian motorists from leaving their immediate places of residence.
"The entire town of Bethlehem has been reduced to a huge detention camp," said acting mayor of Behtlehem Hanna Nasser.
He pointed out that trigger-happy Israeli soldiers manning roadblocks deal harshly with people arriving at the roadblocks.
Earlier on Thursday a woman from Jericho was forced to give birth at an Israel army roadblock outside the town, having been denied access to hospital.
According to the woman's husband, Israeli soldiers told him that "your wife should postpone the childbirth or die."
In the Gaza Strip, the estimated 1.3 million Palestinian population, are completely isolated from the rest of the world, with Israeli occupation troops barring the entry of fuel and food supplies.
Long columns of cars and trucks, which had run out of gas, were seen stranded along the main roads linking Gaza towns and refugee camps while signs were posted on gas stations reading "Sorry-No fuel."
The draconian Israeli measures are aimed at breaking the will of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli apartheid regime.
"They want to force us to come to terms with their occupation of our land, and that will never be," said a cab driver who was turned back at gunpoint on Bethlehem's northern entrance.
The intensified persecution of Palestinian civilians came a few hours after a number of right-wing radical politicians urged Prime Minister Sharon to turn al Palestinian population centers into "internment camps."
The Israeli government apparently thinks it can go to previously unthinkable extents in tormenting the Palestinians, believing it has the Bush Administration at its beck and call.