On
Tuesday August 26 at 11:00AM CST, Israel and Hamas announced that they accepted
an Egyptian proposal for an open-ended cease-fire starting immediately. Within
fifteen minutes all rocket and mortar fire ceased from Gaza, and Israel
refrained from attacking militant targets.
The silence was eerie. No sirens, no
explosions on either side, no Iron Dome interceptors streaking skywards, no
pillars of fire lighting the Gaza night, no roar of Israeli jets on endless
rounds of attack missions or the ominous and unmistakable sounds of Israeli combat helicopters hovering briefly as
they face the target they are about to destroy with devastating air-to-ground
missiles.
The silence was disrupted in Gaza by
spontaneous celebrations in the streets. Hamas spokesmen bragged over every
loudspeaker in the squares about the “glorious victory” over “the army that
no-one else in the world could beat”
“Victory?” – I don’t think they’ll still
think so when they look around and see that the Strip is literally destroyed.
Whole residential and commercial areas are piles of rubble. Public service
buildings are unusable and the hospitals are over-crowded and understaffed. There
is almost no electricity and no running water. Broken sewage pipes flow into
the streets.
A lot of the damage happened in the past
week, and could have been prevented if only Hamas had accepted just one more 24
hour cease-fire extension, to complete an interim agreement.
But as predicted in my article last week, the
cease-fire was never extended. The rocket fire from Gaza intensified in volume
and range, and we saw more use of mortar fire by the terrorists. Last Friday, a
mortar attack killed a beautiful; smiling four year old boy, Daniel Tregerman, who
was just inches away from reaching the “secure area” inside his home in Kibbutz
Nachal Oz.
As the rocket and mortar barrages continued
around the clock, Israel stepped up strikes against the launchers and military
targets of both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Israel warned the entire population
of Gaza, through thousands of flyers, hacked Palestinian radio and TV
broadcasts and direct phone calls to immediately evacuate any building or area
where Hamas or Islamic Jihad military activity was taking place, as that area or
building will be attacked by the IDF.
On Sunday and Monday the Israeli air force
destroyed several multi-story office and apartment buildings, after warning the
occupants, because they were being used as terrorist command centers or launch
sites.
In addition, Israel successfully continued to
decapitate the command structure of the military wing of Hamas through targeted
assassinations. In one attack the IDF targeted Mohammed Deif, the legendary
commander of the Hamas military wing. Hamas announced that his wife and son
were killed when the house they were hiding in was destroyed, but have not yet
confirmed whether Deif was killed or injured. Either way the pinpoint attack on
his secret hiding place was a huge psychological blow to the terrorist
organization.
The following day, in a separate strike,
Israel succeeded in killing the three most senior military commanders of Hamas
directly under Deif.
But the rocket fire did not ease up with
over 200 rockets and mortars fired at Israel over the weekend, including
several towards Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem and Ben Gurion airport.
In the midst of all this, as the attacks
continue, the Egyptians succeeded in getting all sides (Israel, Hamas, Islamic
Jihad and the smaller “resistance groups” in Gaza) to agree to a new “cease-fire”.
This one will not be time limited, and will be conditioned on absolute “quiet
for quiet”.
According to the Egyptian proposal there
will be immediate relief for the people in Gaza in the form of open crossing
points for increased shipment of food, water, goods, medicines, etc.
In
addition (and Israel has reportedly agreed), money will be transferred from the
Palestinian Authority to pay salaries, the fishing area will be extended and
Egypt will open the Rafah crossing under the supervision of Abu Mazen’s forces.
Both Israel and Egypt will provide extra electricity and water.
Most important for both Hamas and Islamic
Jihad – under very tight Israeli, Egyptian and international supervision, Egypt
and Israel will allow in construction materials, to rebuild the devastated
residential and commercial areas.
Within one month, and assuming the
cease-fire is holding, the indirect negotiations over a permanent, lasting
truce will resume in Cairo. With humanitarian conditions in Gaza deteriorating,
all sides have agreed to leave the “heavier” issues: airport; seaport;
demilitarization, governance of Gaza, etc.
It is now 1:30 CST on Tuesday August 26. As
of this writing, the open-ended cease-fire has been holding for 2 hours and
fifteen minutes.
But as several Israeli commentators said
over the past few hours – “we’ve already seen this movie”.
Hamas
will not change, and will remain identical to ISIS. Qatar will remain dedicated
to supporting terrorists who are committed to destroying Israel and killing
Jews. This is a time for licking wounds, and unfortunately, preparing for the
next round of the ongoing war that started in 1947 – The Israeli War of
Independence.
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