Will Egypt’s Effort for A Ceasefire Work?

Cairo urges all parties to abide by the accord, which will go into effect on Saturday.

An Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip went into effect at 10 p.m. local time on Saturday. Israel accepted the cease-fire but refused the Islamic Jihad’s demand that it stops all targeted killings. According to the Israeli publication Haaretz, they cited an official Israeli source.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was congratulated by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Egypt’s “resolute efforts” to mediate a cease-fire. “Quiet will be answered with quiet,” the Israeli statement said, “and if Israel is attacked or provoked, it will take whatever steps are necessary to defend itself.”

Cairo, for its part, urged all parties to uphold the deal, according to a report by Egypt’s Al-Qahera News television network.

“The two sides will abide by the ceasefire which will include an end to targeting civilians, house demolition, and an end to targeting individuals immediately when the ceasefire goes into effect,” said a draft of the agreement obtained by Reuters.

Minutes before the deadline of 10 p.m., reports of missile attacks from both sides surfaced. Israel’s military said it had targeted six operational command positions of the Islamic Jihad organization.

Calm after the storm

However, after the deadline, a tenuous calm developed, with Israel being cautioned against further attacks by the Joint Command, an organization that unites the armed organizations in the Gaza Strip, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

“The resistance forces [in Gaza] are drawing to a close the conflict with unity and resoluteness, and they warn the enemy against reverting to the practice of targeted killings. The group issued a statement after the cease-fire took effect, saying, “We are prepared with a firm hand on the trigger, and if you return, we will return.

Even from the United States, Israel’s closest ally, there had been increasing demands for an agreement on a ceasefire.

According to the State Department, in a call to Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman “stressed the urgency of reaching a ceasefire agreement in order to prevent any further loss of civilian life.”

Saturday denoted the fifth day of Israel’s barrage on the Gaza Strip, which has left somewhere around 33 Palestinians dead, something like 33% of whom were affirmed to have been regular people.

Six senior members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second-largest armed group in Gaza after Hamas, were killed in Israel’s offensive, which was dubbed “Operation Shield and Arrow.”

The air strikes in Gaza have caused significant damage to civilian infrastructure, killed nearly three dozen people, and made many homeless.

Moayed al-Bahri, an occupant of Gaza‘s Beit Lehia, described to reporters the “frightening” minutes air strikes hit his area. Bahri stated, “I was sleeping when my wife woke me up to flee as Israel had warned the Banat family, our neighbor’s house.”

“I and my neighbors were forced to flee.” Men, ladies, youthful and old were shouting. Terrifying was the scene. We hid in a house with our relatives far away. He mentioned that a “high explosive rocket” had been used by Israel to bomb the house, causing significant damage.