Gaza has been a bit off the headlines the last week, because there were 9 consecutive days of cease-fire, in installments of 3+5+1, each time the extension being agreed upon in the last moment.
There has been a continuous flow of leaks and disinformation from the Cairo talks, with the sides taking turn in either pronouncing an agreement imminent with their key demands met, or proclaiming that agreement is nowhere in sight.
Overall it seems that as it became clear to Israel that the entire world expects the talks to end in a substantial opening of Gaza for something resembling normal life - which would count as a humiliating defeat for Israel, since that wouldn't have happened now without this war - Bibi's Israeli government has been looking for a pretext to take its ball and go home.
The mediators - the illegal, incompetent Sisi regime - by now deserve a badge of demerit as Worst Mediators Ever. They have been cheerfully projecting optimism all along. The Obama Administration, the only body on Earth (outside the actions of Arab militants) that has any immediate leverage on Israel's government, has openly taken a back seat.
The ceasefire was supposed to last a few more hours, until midnight Israel-Palestine time, but a couple of hours ago 3 rockets were apparently shot into open territory near Beersheva, Israel. Israel wasted no time, literally minutes, in dispatching air strikes and calling off its delegation. The situation is extremely dangerous, and totally preventable.
I'm going to work, so have not time to provide more content or links. But here's what I just wrote to the White House, and I strongly request that you send similar messages. Thank you.
PS: our middle son is still in Israel, but he just went to Israel's far north with my brother's family. Unless Hizbullah steps in he should be fine. OTOH my wife's entire family is in the south within the region directly affected by war.
Dear Mr. President,Please intervene immediately to prevent collapse of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire!
Israel's government has clearly been looking for an excuse not to sign to what it sees as "concessions", i.e., letting people in Gaza live a semblance of a normal life.
So its PM in conjunction with Sisi's illegal Egypt regime, has been dragging the "talks" on and on, until there's a convenient pretext to pull away from them.
The situation is extremely dangerous. Over 2000 people have already been killed, most of them civilians.
Without hope in a non-jailed future, you are dooming Gazans and by extension their neighbors in southern Israel, to another round of slaughter sooner or later, perhaps even starting today.
You're the only one who can stop this. And you know that.
Please act.
Thank you, Assaf