World News

Cease-Fire COMMENCES between Israel and Gaza

Reporter Austin Kent

5-7-19

A tentative ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in Gaza appeared to have taken hold Monday morning, bringing a short but deadly bout of cross-border fighting to an end as abruptly as it had started. At least 22 Palestinians, including militants and children, were killed in Gaza over the weekend, and four Israeli civilians died in the fighting.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Gaza groups that fired about 600 projectiles at southern Israel on Saturday and Sunday, had indicated a readiness to restore the fragile truce that went into effect nearly five years ago but has been interrupted repeatedly by violence. A Hamas-run television channel reported in the early hours of Monday that a new ceasefire had been reached, and would come into effect at 4:30 a.m.

So finally the region near the Israel-Gaza Border is slowly getting back to normal after the most intense escalation since the 2014 war.

"The militant groups' [Islamic Jihad] conditions emphasized that Israel stop all forms of aggression on our people and begin directly implementing the understandings," said Musab al-Berim, Islamic Jihad spokesperson. From this quote it is clear that the group was tired of the fighting, and that they were hoping for a ceasefire.

The Washington Post reported that, “near the explosion-scarred house of Moshe Agadi, 58, who became the first Israeli since 2014 to die in rocket fire from Gaza, mothers took their children to play in a park after 48 hours of sheltering indoors.” That goes to show how common this constant warfare is, that mothers take their children outside to play so soon after this series of traumatic events.