Cease-fire in Gaza appears to hold after days of fighting

Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a cease-fire after five days of fighting between Israel and the Islamic Jihad militant group. Pic/AP

A fragile cease-fire between Israeli forces and militants in the Gaza Strip appeared to be holding after a five-day clash that killed 33 Palestinians and two people in Israel. The latest round of fighting was sparked on Tuesday when Israeli jets killed three top commanders from the Islamic Jihad militant group in response to earlier rocket launches from Gaza. Those killings set off a barrage of militant fire and the conflagration threatened to drag the region into another all-out war until an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire took hold late on Saturday.

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While the calm appeared to bring a sense of relief to Gaza's 2 million people and hundreds of thousands of Israelis who had been largely confined to bomb shelters in recent days, the agreement did nothing to address the underlying issues that have fueled numerous rounds of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip.

In Gaza, residents surveyed the latest damage caused to their surroundings. Gaza's main cargo crossing with Israel reopened on Sunday after warnings that keeping it closed would force Gaza's sole power plant to shut down.

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