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.
"a humanitarian pause in shelling and airstrikes against civilians"
Where to begin?!
Why 12 hours? Obviously, it takes time to perform proper maintenance on planes and tanks and artillery pieces engaged in constant operations. We don't want an improperly maintained and poorly calibrated war machine to be off-target and kill innocent civilians, do we?