Hamas, Israel agree to de-escalation

A general agreement has been reached between the warring sides after tremendous mediation effort by international parties in recent days and a great number of messages exchanged via intermediaries.

 

Israel, for its part, removed its forces from the perimeter, a 100-meter wide “buffer zone” along the border and inside Gazan territory. Construction crews working on the border fence on Saturday did not did advance beyond that zone. However, it seems that the IDF will continue to operate in the perimeter and beyond it if necessary. Hamas’s true test will be how they respond to the entry of IDF forces in such a case.

 

In recent days, Hamas has been pushing for and initiating talks to return calm. Egypt (via Egyptian intelligence officials), Qatar (via the head of the Qatari Committee for Reconstruction of Gaza, who has good relations with Israeli representatives), and the UN (via the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process) were all parties to these talks.

 

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