“Israel stopped its air attacks on the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning and has adopted a defensive stance of intercepting rockets using the Iron Dome system. Also, on rare occasions, it targets rocket-launching teams – if they are identified at the time of the launch. Meanwhile, the Palestinians fired two rockets yesterday and seven mortars, a sharp drop compared to the weekend.

The calm may be restored gradually since the mutual deterrence appears to be working, at least partially. Both sides still hold a few aces. Israel can reoccupy the Strip if it decides to do so, and Hamas has rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv. Nonetheless, neither side is eager to use its ace because of the heavy price it will have to pay. Also, neither side sees any clear gain in seriously escalating the situation.”

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