After days of tit-for-tat strikes from both sides and talks of an Israeli invasion, the situation in and around the Gaza Strip seems to be calming down quite a bit today, with a tense de facto ceasefire taking hold and both sides seemingly willing to hold their salvos, for now.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, however, insisted the fighting is “certainly not over” and that Israel is simply going to decide “how and when” future attacks against the tiny strip will take place.
Other Israeli officials were sending a lot of mixed signals on the matter, with some talking up escalation and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu making some comments hinting at relative restraint while making threats of even bigger attacks to come.
Egypt has been working to negotiate a ceasefire, and while the calm seems to suit them just fine, the Muslim Brotherhood is also calling for protests against the Israeli attacks, suggesting that the nation’s “behind the scenes facilitator” status could be changing, and that every time these fights break out the nation isn’t just going to quietly try to broker ceasefire after ceasefire without public comment.