The seven-week war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza was put on pause this week as the two sides agreed a series of temporary truce agreements to allow for the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
As the Guardian’s Jason Burke in Jerusalem tells Michael Safi, there have been scenes of joy as families are reunited on both sides of the conflict. The pause in fighting has allowed aid supplies to further trickle into Gaza but the humanitarian crisis grows more grave by the day.
Fidaa Alaraj, a Palestinian woman who works with Oxfam in Gaza, tells us that the one question for everyone she speaks to is the same: what do we do now?
It’s a question that also faces the Israeli military. The IDF began the campaign with the stated intention of freeing Israeli hostages and eliminating Hamas. As the clock runs down on the latest temporary ceasefire, that mission clearly remains unfinished.
Photograph: Prime Minister’S Office/Reuters
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