Israel-Hamas ceasefire "political victory" for Palestinian factions

The ceasefire deal announced Wednesday between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement is a "political victory" for Palestinian factions, while the conflict played the role of a "revealer" for Israel's Middle East policy, Egyptian analysts said. During a joint press conference with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr announced that the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza militant groups takes effect at 9:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT). "The ceasefire deal represents a political victory for the Gazan factions, as Israel couldn't meet its threat target, like destroying Gaza's infrastructure, because of the regional and international pressure." said Akram Houssam, a political expert with the Cairo-based Middle East Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "The victory in this conflict can't be viewed from the military perspective, as there is no military parity between Israel and Gaza, but it can be seen politically," he said. The ceasefire agreement was brokered by Egypt, which obtained some guarantees from the deal parties to ensure their commitment. According to Houssam, Egypt's role in brokering the truce deal uncovered a luminous score in the foreign policy of the new Egyptian regime. On the guarantees predicted to be tackled on the negotiating table, he said the Israeli side may ask Hamas to deliver some people who committed military and terror operations. While the whole world hailed Egypt for its part in the negotiations, Houssam believed that there were some catalysts that helped Egypt's endeavors achieve the success. "There are very important factors leading to the truce, such as the Israeli public opinions that were pushing the Israeli leaders to stop the war because of the terrific atmosphere, and the military situation of Hamas that seemed to be more developed than in the year of 2008," he said, adding that since the 1970s, Hamas has never had rockets capable of reaching Jerusalem. "Also the U.S. and other international forces that were supposed to stand by Israel helped the truce as they don't want more turmoil in the region that would otherwise divert their focus on the Syrian issue," said the expert. Echoing Houssam's view, Saed Lawendy, a political expert with al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said the truce represents a triumph for Hamas, but he traced the victory back to Israel's "poor estimate" for the Egyptian and international reactions. "Israel thought Egypt will act the same way as the former regime, and forgot the close relations between the now powerful Muslim Brotherhood and the Hamas movement," Lawendy said. According to Egyptian state news agency MENA, the agreement between Israel and Hamas requires Israel to stop all hostile ground, sea and air operations on the Gaza Strip, including invasions and operations targeting individuals. The agreement also stipulates that the Palestinian factions stop all hostile operations toward Israel, including launching rockets and attacking border areas. In addition, it calls for opening border crossings and facilitating movements of people and goods, without restricting the residents' freedom. Such procedures shall be implemented 24 hours after the agreement came into effect. Houssam said that although the conditions do not pour in one's interests on the account of the other's, ensuring "safe" movements for the Palestinians on the borders bears good signals. The ceasefire agreement is not time bound, but in the view of Lawendy and Houssam, this is normal as there were no ground invasions during the conflict. However, they noted that as the current regional changes will make Israel think twice before any aggressions in the future, the truce will last for "a long time."