Israel, Gaza militants agree to cease-fire
Airstrikes, rocket attacks kill 44 in occupied region
Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza agreed to a ceasefire late Sunday night, in a move that was expected to end a three-day conflict that killed dozens of Palestinians, including militant commanders, but which did little to change the status quo in Israel and the occupied territories.
The conflict, which began Friday afternoon when Israel launched airstrikes to foil what it said was an imminent attack from Gaza, paralyzed parts of southern Israel and resulted in the destruction of several residential buildings and militant bases in Gaza.
Forty-four Palestinians, including 15 children, were killed in the fighting, according to Palestinian health officials. Scores of Israelis were slightly injured while running for cover from Palestinian rockets, and several were hurt by shrapnel. An unexploded rocket fell in a residential area of Ashkelon, a southern Israeli city, broadcasters reported.
The central dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including a 15-year blockade of Gaza, nevertheless remain in place, and the escalation this past weekend left the two sides as distant as ever from the possibility of peace negotiations. But the fighting revealed simmering tensions between Islamic Jihad, the militia that led this latest battle against Israel, and Hamas, the militia that runs Gaza, which opted to remain on the sidelines of the conflict.
The fighting has badly damaged Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second-largest militia. Two of its key leaders are now dead and many of its bases and weapons factories have been destroyed — factors that allowed Israel to claim victory in this round of fighting.
A senior Israeli official said in a statement that Israel had completed “a precise and effective operation that met all of its strategic objectives.”
The cease-fire officially took effect at 11:30 p.m. local time and, except for one rocket fired 20 minutes later, appeared to hold into early Monday morning.
Israel declined to reveal further details about the agreement, but Islamic Jihad said they had received assurances from Egyptian officials who mediated the negotiations that Egypt would lobby Israel to release two leading members of the group, Bassem Saadi and Khalil Awawdeh, who are detained in Israeli jails.
The conflict highlighted both the limits and strengths of Israel’s strategy of offering small economic concessions to ordinary Gazans — notably 14,000 work permits to help improve the Palestinian economy.
That approach failed to prevent yet another conflagration over an enclave that has experienced at least six major bursts of violence since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007. But by helping to convince Hamas to stay out of this particular conflict, the strategy likely helped shorten the length of the fighting, which in the past has often gone on for weeks, rather than days.
Within Israel, the conflict also initially appeared to help burnish the credentials of Yair Lapid, Israel’s interim prime minister, who has long been accused by critics in Israel of lacking the experience necessary to lead the country in times of war.
Before the cease-fire was agreed to, Israeli analysts largely portrayed the episode as a victory and even a warning to Israel’s other enemies in the region — particularly Hezbollah, the Islamist militia in Lebanon — of the fate that awaits them should they also enter into full-scale combat with Israel in the near future.
By contrast, with no change to life or prospects in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinians had little to celebrate and many families were left grieving over the loss of life.
Islamic Jihad was also embarrassed by videos that appeared to show its rockets malfunctioning and hitting civilian areas in Gaza.
“Objectively speaking, the Israelis will win if the ceasefire holds,” said Ibrahim Dalalsha, director of the Horizon Center, a Palestinian political research group. “They have isolated Islamic Jihad.”