Israel, Hamas reach tentative ceasefire agreement
ISRAEL and Hamas have reached a tentative Egyptian-mediated agreement for a ceasefire, which was to be implemented in the early hours of yesterday morning, following two days of fighting.
The ceasefire proposal was reached late on Sunday night following a proposal by the UN, Qatar and Egypt which have been holding around-theclock negotiations with the warring sides.
Twenty-three Palestinians, including two pregnant women and a toddler, and four Israelis, were killed in two days of fighting which involved rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and various other Palestinian factions, and the Israeli military shelling a total of 320 targets in Gaza by air and sea.
But whether or not the ceasefire will hold remains to be seen as shortly before the agreement both sides had dug in their heels issuing bellicose statements. Reports of a halt to the fighting followed five hours of talks by Israel’s security cabinet on Sunday after which they warned that there would be no ceasefire while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to up their attacks on Gaza.
Islamic Jihad also stated on Sunday that there would be no negotiations for ending the current round of hostilities and warned that they would increase the range of the rockets they were firing towards Israel, saying they intended to attack Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel.
But the most important issue is that the conditions on the ground which gave rise to the fighting remain despite a recent agreement mediated by Egypt which saw the siege on the Gaza Strip slightly eased.
Israeli analyst Amos Harel said currently both sides are playing for time and are not interested in a full-blown military escalation at this point. But the dynamics of confrontation are working overtime, reminiscent of the days before previous wars.
“Israel wants to dictate a situation in which Hamas is weakened without being toppled,” Harel said.
“In the West Bank, the government is doing everything it can, in co-ordination with the US administration, to damage the standing of the Palestinian Authority. This policy comes with a price.
“What is going on is an armed haggling over conditions for the easing of the siege on Gaza. Hamas’ quite modest demands were not met on time, despite Israel’s commitments. This includes money transfers from Qatar (delayed partly for bureaucratic reasons), making border crossings easier and immediate improvements in the supply of electricity,” added the Israeli analyst. Another Israeli analyst Zvi Bar’el added that both Israel and Hamas are clenched in a system of mutual deterrence and dependence.
This, he said, will only grow as long as there is no feasible diplomatic plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy labelled the firing of rockets from Gaza on Israel the “Gaza Ghetto Uprising”.
Levy lambasted the way the conflict had been reported by both Israeli and international media, arguing that contextual background has been missing from their narrative.
The US and the European Union meanwhile, have supported Israel’s assertion that it has the right to self-defence while the UN has also criticised the indiscriminate firing of rockets on Israeli civilians by the Palestinian factions.