Calm Returns to Israel-Gaza Border as Ceasefire Takes Hold

Botched Sunday raid by Israel prompted flurry of attacks on both sides

After a massive exchange of fire on Monday that some are calling a “brief war,” a ceasefire took hold between Israel and Hamas, and calm has returned to the border area for the time being.

This is leaving everyone quickly reflecting on what happened. A late Sunday night raid by Israeli forces went wrong, leading to a number of deaths. This led to rocket fire from Gaza, and Israeli strikes, and between the two, they built up into a huge exchange.

This is leaving a lot of resentment on both sides, even while locals are glad that calm has returned, and officials on both sides are trying to spin what happened, brief and pointless though it was, as a victory for their side.

Overall casualty figures from this incident are not yet public, but deaths are believed to be relatively limited beyond the eight killed in the Sunday night raid. Israel destroyed the headquarters of a Gaza TV station, and also insisted they carried out attacks against other “infiltrators,” though those infiltrators weren’t anywhere ear the border and mostly were struck in random populated areas.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.