Israel-Gaza truce

August 28, 2014

The truce reached between the two warring sides has come to an indecisive as both the parties have finally agreed to a ceasefire. The peace has been hailed by the people of Gaza on the streets as they had a sound night’s sleep after a long gap of 50 days.
There is apparently no clear victor and on both the sides the civilians have lost most of their holdings. The life seems to have come to a standstill where for many everything has to start from a scratch. The strikes have claimed the lives of 2200 civilians in Gaza including 500 children. On the other side too, thousands of rockets were fired and thus as many as 80 civilian casualties were reported.
Many newspapers have termed it as a sad draw with no significant gains for either side. The conflict which was regarded as an asymmetric one has proved to Israel that amassing military superiority could not help it gain the desired aims to completely destabilize Hamas. Hamas has however, been able to show great resistance and maintained positions till the end. This may bag them a new standing in the Palestinian side and in Arab world at large.
Both the parties have however returned to the negotiations table albeit the status-quo in their positions of Hamas not recognizing the state of Israel and Israel still considering Hamas to be a terror outfit. The long standing demands are not likely to be met in near future for both parties. Israel which is looking at total demilitarisation of Gaza is a tall demand. Even Hamas wants big concessions as opening up of Gaza and lifting up of Israel and Egyptian blockade of the strip on land, air and sea routes.
Israel has agreed to a partial upliftment of the blockade by allowing humanitarian aid and construction materials into Gaza. Israel has also agreed to extending the fishing zone by 6 miles. Further negotiations will continue in Cairo where both sides are expected to take up more serious issues like release of Palestinians arrested during the conflict and building of a Gaza seaport. Israel may however stick to its demand of demilitarisation of Gaza.
The next step will be seen at the truce meeting but the extent of damage to ordinary lives will make governance an issue for both Hamas and Netanyahu in their own countries.

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