REBECCA ROBERTS, host:
From NPR News, this is All Things Considered. I'm Rebecca Roberts. On a historic day in Washington, stars take to the stage and hundreds of thousands take to the Mall to officially open inauguration weekend. America's favorite Irishman, Bono, led the celebrity charge with an international riff on the American dream.
(Soundbite of inauguration concert)
BONO (Lead Singer, U2): Not just an American dream, a European dream, African dream, Israeli dream, and also a Palestinian dream. Sing!
(Soundbite of song "In the Name of Love")
U2: (Singing) In the name of love...
ROBERTS: First, though, we'll turn to the Gaza Strip, relatively calm today for the first time in more than three weeks. Both Israel and Hamas are observing a cease-fire. Israel moved first, last night, and early today, Hamas leaders declared a one-week cease-fire to give Israel a chance to withdraw from Gaza. Some Israeli tanks and soldiers were seen leaving the territory today, but it's not clear when the rest will pull out.
Foreign journalists were allowed into Gaza today for the first time since the Israeli offensive began. NPR's Eric Westervelt crossed over from Egypt in the town of Rafah. He's in Gaza City now, and I asked him what he saw on the drive.
ERIC WESTERVELT: Well, at the Rafah crossing itself, I saw mostly Egyptian ambulance Red Cross workers. They were busy unloading wounded civilians for treatment in Egypt. Many of them were in very bad shape. I then drove up the main coastal roadway, and it was a bit ghostlike and deserted. Most of the other cars on the road coming north from Rafah this afternoon were ambulances. People are still very afraid. This is the first full night of calm. They're being very cautious. Very few people were venturing out as the sun was setting tonight.
The coastal road was bombed out in several places. We had to drive off-road into the sand a few times where Israeli air and naval strikes had blasted holes and craters in the road. I also saw giant scars in the road and sand burns where Israeli tanks had, until just last night's cease-fire, taken up fighting positions.
And when you get closer to Gaza City, the scale of the destruction is everywhere. Multiple Hamas buildings and police compounds have been reduced to rubble. The Red Cross today recovered dozens more bodies buried in the rubble. The destruction is just massive.
ROBERTS: At least for tonight, anyway, the cease-fire does appear to be holding. What's your sense of how strong this truce is?
WESTERVELT: Well, people are afraid that it's not going to last. There's a constant buzz of military - Israeli military unmanned drones flying overhead. You talk to people in the streets and they say they just don't believe that it will hold.
I interviewed a Hamas official tonight in Rafah. His name is Gati Hamed(ph). He said if Israeli forces aren't out of the territory in a week, we will resist, of course. And while he conceded that Hamas fighters were clearly no match for the Israeli military and heavy armor, he pointed out that, you know, Hamas fighters were still able to fire rockets into Israel throughout this three-week conflict, although in fewer numbers over the course of the war.
And one aid official here tonight said to me, you know, we're back at square one. There's a shaky, uneasy truce. The crossings are not open, and people are scared of more violence.
ROBERTS: Israeli leaders have said that this military operation was a big blow to Hamas, both militarily and politically. Have you seen any signs of Hamas trying to reassert itself?
WESTERVELT: A little bit. On the drive up from Rafah tonight, there was a Hamas presence at some key roadways and intersections. But these Hamas fighters are in civilian clothes as were the policemen. They were not brandishing weapons. They were laying low, and I think it'll be an important test and something to follow up on to see if in coming days, Hamas policemen and other institutions do try to reassert themselves visibly out in public in coming days.
ROBERTS: NPR's Eric Westervelt in Gaza City. Thanks, Eric.
WESTERVELT: You're welcome.