The Israeli government has declared its intention to begin a 7-hour “humanitarian truce” at 10 AM Israeli time Monday morning (1 AM Eastern Monday) in certain parts of the Gaza Strip, aimed at allowing civilians to receive humanitarian aid shipments.
Those paying attention will note that the last such Israeli ceasefire led to Palestinian civilians crowding into a food market to try to find provisions, only to be attacked by Israel in the middle of the supposed truce.
Exactly which parts of Gaza are included in the upcoming truce remains unclear, though the city of Rafah, which has been the target of the most intense Israeli attacks, has been excluded and will continue to be targeted throughout the truce.
With Israel removing many of its ground troops from Gaza in favor of a return to airstrikes and shellings, the lull is unlikely to seriously impact the war at all, and indeed the indications are that anything Israel wants to attack will simply be defined outside of the truce area.
