Israel and Hamas to try 72-hour ceasefire for second time

The month old Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip seems as though it may be coming to a close as numerous reports say that both Hamas and Israel have accepted an Egyptian negotiated peace at the same time large numbers of Israeli troops are withdrawing from Gaza.

Fox News reports a 72-hour ceasefire has been brokered by the Egyptian government and will go into effect 8 a.m. local time August 5.

While both parties have signaled their acceptance of such a truce, this is no guarantee of peace. A similar measure ended in blood and bombs at the end of July.

Thus far, the conflict in Gaza has claimed more than 1,800 Palestinian lives and 60 Israelis. The United Nations estimates that around 75 percent of the Palestinian victims are civilians.

On the Israeli side, Hamas' rockets killed two Israeli civilians and a migrant worker from Thailand. The rest of Israel's casualties came about as a result of fighting in the Gaza Strip after the invasion.

Media reports previously said that Israel was winding down its operations in Gaza although no ceasefire had been reached.

The decision to wind down operations in the Gaza Strip probably has its origins in three primary concerns.

The first is the preservation of Israel's reputation around the globe. After multiple deadly attacks on UN facilities functioning and clearly designated as shelters, even the United States had no choice but to describe Israel's conduct in Gaza as "disgraceful."

The second concern is the elaborate network of tunnels Hamas has built underneath the Gaza Strip to hide rockets and move around the strip safely. The New York Times reports that the Israeli military believes it has destroyed the entire network, which will severely hinder Hamas' operational capacity and help keep Israel safe.

The third reason is that August 4 witnessed two lone wolf type terror attacks in Israel proper. In one incident, a soldier was shot as he waited for a bus. In another, a man in a construction vehicle ran over an Israeli, destroyed a bus stop, and flipped over a bus. These incidents foreshadowed a possible dark new turn in the conflict, where Israeli Arabs desperate to influence events in Gaza, would take matters into their own hands.

Israel may be hoping that by ending operations in Gaza, people will lose their motivation for such actions. In turn, this may also help prevent another Intifada where Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank carry out acts of violence against Israel.