The airstrikes and ground skirmishes between Palestine and Israel finally halted last night after the Palestinian military agreed to a ceasefire with the Israeli occupation forces in a development that had been greatly spurred on by global criticism.
The intense 11-day battle that had resulted in the deaths of 250 Palestinians and over 1,000 injured ended after a select group of countries on the UN Security Council had labored over the proceedings for a ceasefire between the two groups.
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After the ceasefire, the UN Secretary-General, António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, released a statement explaining that “Israeli and Palestinian leaders have a responsibility beyond the restoration of calm to start a serious dialogue to address the root causes of the conflict. Gaza is an integral part of the future Palestinian state and no effort should be spared to bring about real national reconciliation that ends the division”.
Although both the Palestinians and Israeli occupation forces have expressed their reservations over the importance of the ceasefire, the international community believes that it will essentially thwart any Israeli attempts to invade the Gaza Strip over the next six months.
In this regard, the American President, Joe Biden, stated,
We remain committed to work with the United Nations and other international stakeholders to provide rapid humanitarian assistance and to marshal international support for the people in Gaza and in the Gaza reconstruction efforts.
While Biden’s comments seem to be a little too good to be true, the amount of pressure that his administration received over the last couple of weeks from its ‘countries of vested interest’ was too high to be ignored.
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After the ceasefire was announced, the Gaza Strip erupted with celebrations as Palestinians took to the streets, marking a win against terror while having been armed with sticks and stones.
Few minutes after the #ceasefire, scenes show hundreds of Palestinias in Gazza Strip, the West Bank, Jerusalem and many other cities celebrating what they consider a victory.
Definitely, they deserve this happiness, they lost families, friends and homes in the last 11 days. pic.twitter.com/4U3zBQ8AYp— Osama Gaweesh (@osgaweesh) May 20, 2021
Essentially, the truce brokered by the government of Egypt was agreed upon after calls from many countries for the stemming of the bloodshed during the second week of May, almost a week before the yearly Jewish celebration of the Nakba.
