Gaza / PNN - It is the second day of the “ceasefire” which has Israeli forces still inside the Gaza Strip. The year and a half siege is still in place, as is the closure. Troops line the boundaries.

Israeli warplanes still fly overhead with reconnaissance aircraft circling. A warship fired a missile, but no one was injured.

Rescue teams found 10 more Palestinians dead in the rubble that the Gaza Strip was degraded to. Hamas’ armed resistance wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, held a press conference this morning paying tribute to the Palestinian people for remaining steadfast during 22 days of a major Israeli operation. Thousands of people are in mourning in the Strip that by the initial estimates of the National Statistics Service will take 1.9 billion USD to rebuild. Twenty-two thousand homes were partially or completely destroyed.

Director of Ambulance and Emergency in the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Dr. Muawiya Hassanein says in Gaza that the bodies of women, children and adult males are being found. Thirty-two percent of the 1,300 Palestinians killed are children as are 35 percent of the 5,400 injured.

The mood in the Strip is cautious with residents expecting an Israeli return to fire "at any minute."

Calls are coming from imprisoned Fateh leader and Palestinian Legislative Council member Marwan Barghouti for a Palestinian unity government and immediate elections, while the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine asked today for an “end to the chaos and fragmented negotiations.” Regarding the ceasefire with the Israeli administration the DFLP insisted there be regulated terms.

It is loose this thing called ceasefire that keeps the Gaza Strip under complete control, occupation times 10 for the time being. The Israeli administration announced Monday morning that it would withdraw in time for the inauguration of the new US President Barak Obama.

Hamas’ Abu Obaida was the latest name announced to have died during the Israeli operation.

The European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner commented, “It was indispensable to have a ceasefire. I welcome the fact that Israel has declared a ceasefire.”

Israeli sources report that 10 Israeli soldiers and three civilians were killed during their operation against the Gaza Strip. Two hundred were injured with 51 soldiers and 13 civilians hospitalized, some of whom they say are in serious condition.