Fresh off of the announcement that Israel’s Security Cabinet unanimously rejected the US ceasefire proposal, the US is reporting Israel has agreed to a 12-hour unilateral pause in bombings of the besieged strip.
The details are scant, and Israel itself has not elaborated on the plan, but it seems to be a humanitarian pause in shelling and airstrikes against civilians in Gaza beginning later this evening and continuing through noon US Eastern time on Saturday.
At the same time, it won’t be a cessation of hostilities, and the ground invasion will continue apace, just without the airstrikes and artillery hits against the residential neighborhoods that have been a hallmark of the current war.
US officials were presenting this as proof of major progress, though a previous ceasefire between the two sides earlier in the war was almost immediately followed by a massive Israeli escalation.
