The Eshkol Regional Council informs residents of the southern Israeli region, which was battered heavily by rockets from Gaza during Operation Breaking Dawn, of a “full return to routine” after last night’s ceasefire.
A statement from the council says limits on gatherings and workplaces will be lifted, roads will be reopened and that educational activities and agricultural work can resume. It adds that regular train service will resume at noon and says public swimming pools can also reopen.Senior Israeli officials indicate that there is an opening for further agreements with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the wake of the ceasefire to end fighting in Gaza.
“There are absolutely aware that there is an opportunity in the aftermath that we don’t want to miss,” says an official, pointing at the ongoing attempts to arrange for the return of Israeli civilian captives and bodies of IDF soldiers held by Hamas, among other opportunities.
“The signals from Hamas in recent weeks have been received,” an official says.
“We want to take things forward, and not make do only with a ceasefire with PIJ,” says one of the officials.
The return to Israel’s regular policies toward Gaza will happen gradually and in a way that “sends a message about the future,” says one of the officials.
These policies are expected to be put back in place over the next couple of days.
Israel did not agree to release Khalil al-Awawda, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member who is hunger-striking in protest of his detention by Israel without any charges, nor the terror group’s West Bank leader Bassam al-Saadi, who was arrested last week in a move believed to have sparked the round of violence in Gaza.
Israel has no intentions to release the prisoners early as demanded by PIJ following the ceasefire in Gaza last night, The Times of Israel has learned.
Meanwhile, senior Israeli officials point out the intensive and, in their eyes, successful ongoing contacts with Egypt, Qatar, the United States and other countries during the fighting in Gaza.
“They knew all the elements of our decision-making beforehand and also our efforts to avoid acting, and to ensure [the conflict] was as limited as possible,” says one of the officials.
“The Qataris have an important role here as a player that creates economic stability,” the official says.
These efforts helped in the ceasefire process, which began on Saturday.
The fact that Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s general-secretary Ziad Nakhaleh was in Tehran meeting the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps made it harder to him to agree to a ceasefire, according to the officials.
Officials were especially pleased with Egypt’s role. “Egyptian mediation was very intensive. Our relationship with them is extremely close.”
Israel’s political leadership initially wanted the ceasefire to come into effect yesterday afternoon, but had to give a few more hours to allow the IDF to complete operations, say the officials.
