Hamas and Israel agree on a ceasefire after nearly a month of violent escalation in the Gaza Strip

The almost daily violent escalation between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the Israeli authorities in the Gaza Strip has come to an end, for the time being. Both sides committed themselves to implementing the terms of a truce negotiated by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations in October 2018. 

This was confirmed in a communiqué by the office of the political leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinur: "After a round of dialogues and contacts, the last of which was done by the Qatari representative, Ambassador / Mohamed Al-Emadi, an understanding was reached to contain the escalation and stop the Zionist aggression against our people."

For its part, another communiqué issued by the Israeli military agency responsible for Gaza assured that “this decision will be tested on the ground: if Hamas, which is accountable for all actions that are taken in the Gaza Strip, fails to stand its obligations, Israel will act accordingly,” it said. 

The health crisis in the region has been a key factor in the cessation of violence as this will allow both to focus on alleviating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Israel's halting of fuel shipments to Gaza had greatly affected the fight against the coronavirus, as the medical centres were without electricity. The situation became dangerous when, last Monday, Hamas officials reported the first cases of community transmission of the virus and subsequently its accelerated spread. As of this Monday, there were 243 active cases and three people had already died in the last week as a result of COVID-19.

The virus, spreading rapidly throughout the Strip, has largely caused Hamas to agree to end hostilities with Israel in exchange for an injection of cash from Qatar, which according to The New York Times, citing a source close to the agreement, would amount to 27 million dollars, and an agreement with Israel to let fuel flow back to the Kerem Shalom power station, which was blocked by the Israelis a couple of weeks ago, in addition to allowing fishermen from Gaza to the Mediterranean within a radius of 15 nautical miles. 

In reprisal for the launching of incendiary balloons and rocket fire from Palestinian territory into Israel, since August 6 the Hebrew army has been bombing the strip, ruled by Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by the United States and Israel, almost every night. According to Israeli firefighters, the incendiary balloons caused over 400 fires in Israel. 

The military factions of Hamas agreed to stop launching rockets and fireballs at Israeli communities and to put an end to the night-time protests. 

The agreement was announced by Mohammed al-Emadi, the Qatari ambassador who heads the Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, who has been talking to both sides for the past few days. 

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay E. Mladenov, celebrated on his Twitter account the agreement reached: “Ending the launching of incendiary devices and projectiles, restoring electricity will allow #UN to focus on dealing with the #COVID19 crisis. All parties should return to the calm understandings".