RAMALLAH: After five days of violence between Israeli military forces and armed factions in the Gaza Strip, Egypt has brokered a truce between the two sides. The latest round of fighting broke out after Gazan militants fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli military jeep in Gaza on Saturday. The military wing of Hamas and the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine both took credit for the attack, which injured three Israeli soldiers. In response, an Israeli tank shelled a mourning tent in Gaza City, which killed four Palestinians and injured 26. Over the five days, at least 115 rockets were fired into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli Air Force launched around a dozen airstrikes across the narrow strip. The total Palestinian death toll reached 7 on Tuesday—four civilians and three militants. Eight Israeli civilians were injured from rocket fire. After the truce, negotiated through Egyptian channels and finalized on Monday night, disputed Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, saying that Gazan militants “showed a high sense of responsibility by saying they would respect the calm should the Israeli occupation abide by it," reports Al-Jazeera. “The message was clear and Israel too told Egypt they were not interested in escalation if rocket firing stopped. The situation now is calm for calm and I hope it does not deteriorate,” an Egyptian mediator told Reuters. Fighting on the rise: 2012 has seen a sharp increase in fighting between armed factions in Gaza and Israeli military forces since Israel's 2008 Operation Cast Lead. Israeli forces have executed the most operations on Gaza since a three-week armed conflict that began in late 2008 and continued into the beginning of 2009 and resulted in the deaths of over 13 Israelis and over 1,000 Palestinians. Egypt has mediated several truces this year, including the one that put an end to the last round of fighting less than a month ago. Gazan militias fired over 86 rockets into southern Israel, As of October 2012, the Israeli Defense Forces estimates that over 630 rockets have been fired from Gaza this year alone, totaling more than the 627 throughout the entirety of 2011 and the 212 in 2010. 81 Israelis have been injured in the first ten months of 2012, almost three times that of 2011. B'tselem estimates that since the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead in early 2009, Israeli forces have killed over 270 Palestinians in Gaza, at least 30 of which were minors. As popular resentment in Gaza continues to build and frustrated Israelis pressure their government to do whatever it takes to stop the rocket fire, it is increasingly unlikely that the status quo can be maintained. Threats of escalation: Last month, IDF colonel Amir Baram told an Israeli news channel that the military was weighing the option of reentering the Gaza Strip by launching a ground operation. He suggested that the IDF needed “to reenter Gaza" and ought to send soldiers “house to house," implying that Israel should renew the direct occupation of the Gaza Strip, which ended with an infamous and controversial 2005 evacuation under the auspices of former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. On Sunday, PM Netanyahu told a weekly cabinet meeting of ministers that Israel needed to escalate the pressure on Gazan militants. “The world needs to understand that Israel will not sit with arms crossed when faced with attempts to hurt us," he said. “We are prepared to intensify our response," he added. Several Israeli officials openly spoke about the possibility of launching a ground invasion of Gaza on Monday. At a commemoration for the 56th anniversary of the Israeli invasion of the EgyptianSinai, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin told an audience that the upcoming elections should not discourage politicians from supporting an invasion of Gaza, reported Jerusalem Post. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told IDF military radio that “there is no escaping... a military decision on Hamas in Gaza." Leader of the Israeli Labor party Shelly Yacomovich said that the operation is not presently necessary, but may be in the future. Shaul Mofaz, leader of Israel's Kadima party and former IDF chief of staff, suggested instead targeted assassinations of militia leaders in Gaza. Gaza's civilians suffer Over 1.6 million people live in the approximately 365-square- kilometer Gaza Strip, making it one of the most densely populated areas on the planet. Over 1.1 million are registered refugees who were displaced by the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel; they live in eight refugee camps across the thin coastal enclave. Fighting, particularly Israeli air raids, does not just kill and injure a high number of civilians—bombing campaigns, especially when coupled aside Israel's ongoing blockade, interrupt economic life in every sector from commerce to production. A United Nations report released in August concluded that Gaza will be “unlivable" by 2020: unemployment hovers around 45 percent; the population is expected to increase by half a million in the next eight years; the government operates on 80 percent aid dependency; and over 90 percent of water is unsafe for consumption. Furthermore, the report projects a 60 percent increase in water needs. According the CIA World Fact Book, Gaza's fertility rate is the highest in Middle East and North Africa and the 29th highest in the world (out of 229 countries). In October, an Israeli human rights organization won a three and a half year legal struggle that resulted in the Israeli government having to release a document in which it calculated the number of calories each person needed to stay just above malnutrition, and thus estimated the number of aid trucks and food supplies it would allow into Gaza each day. Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but through the blockade it continues to control many aspects of daily Palestinian life.
