Ceasefire Between Israel And Palestine Holds After Three-Day Conflict

Topline

Israel on Monday reopened border crossings into the Gaza strip, according to Reuters, after the country signed a truce with Palestinian militants following three days of violence that left dozens of Palestinians dead and hundreds injured, marking a potential end to the worst fighting since war broke out between Israel and Hamas in 2021.

A boy looks at the rubble of his family house after it was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike.

Key Facts

Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group—an Iranian-backed group that is one of two central Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza strip—agreed to a cease fire Sunday evening, which Egypt helped negotiate, to put an end to the three-day conflict.

Though the ceasefire took effect at 11:30 p.m. local time, both sides continued rocket fire in the minutes after it began, the New York Times reported.

The truce came after the violence started Friday afternoon, when Israel launched airstrikes into Gaza to to pre-empt a planned attack from Palestinian militants, the country said, which was followed by rocket fire from Palestinian militants.

The Israeli airstrikes killed two senior commanders for the Islamic Jihad group, Khaled Mansour and Tayseer al-Jabari, while 44 Palestinians were killed in total, including 15 children, with 311 people wounded, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

President Joe Biden Sunday called for a “timely and thorough investigation” into the civilian casualties, while praising the cease-fire between the two sides.

Key Background

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group—which the State Department and the European Union lists as a terrorist organization—was launched in 1981 by Palestinian students to create an Islamic Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel, according to the Associated Press. It is smaller than Hamas, the other main Palestininan group in the Gaza strip, and has ties to Iran, which provides the group with funds and weapons. Hamas—which took control of Gaza in 2007 from the Palestinian authority—did not engage in the conflict, as some suspected it was worried about economic fallout with Israel after reaching several agreements with the country, including to allow work permits for Gaza workers. Israel began the airstrikes Friday targeting the Islamic Jihad’s leaders, followed by another strike Saturday hitting another group commander, while Palestinian militants responded with more rocket fire. Israel said its strikes killed roughly 15 militants in total, and painted the conflict—and in particular the deaths of the Palestinian militant group’s leaders—as a victory. The conflict marks the most violent fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants since Hamas and Israel traded fire in an 11-day war in 2021 that left more than 200 people dead.

Surprising Fact

Israel has killed an Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza in the past as well. In 2019, one of the group’s leaders, Bahaa Abu el-Atta, was killed in an Israeli air raid that hit his home in the Gaza strip and also killed his wife.

Tangent

Violence also broke out between Israel and Palestinian militants earlier this year in a conflict some worried could escalate into war. In April, during the period of Ramadan, clashes flared on several occasions at a holy site, Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem’s old city, with Palestinians throwing stones at police officers who fired back tear gas and stun grenades. The violence left dozens of Palestinians injured. Similar clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque—which is viewed as sacred by Muslims, Christians and Jews—in 2021 played a role in fueling the 11-day war.

Ceasefire Between Israel And Palestine Holds After Three-Day Conflict—Here’s What Happened

Topline

Key Facts

Key Background

Surprising Fact

Tangent

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