The Jerusalem Post reports that Hamas will accede to a one-week ceasefire with Israeli forces, after previously indicating it would decline to do so. In even more heartening news, several smaller (and generally thought to be more radical) Palestinian factions, such as Islamic Jihad, have agreed to the truce, and in fact it looks like pressure from these groups is what made Hamas change its position. Israel, for its part, will begin gradually withdrawing from Gaza today, and if calm holds will allow border crossings to open.
I still think Israel is going to have to realize that some rogue Palestinian element, somewhere, is probably going to manage to fire off a bullet or a rocket during this ceasefire, and not let that derail them. But for the moment at least, progress seems to be being made.
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