Sweet Reprieve!

Israel has halted operations in Gaza for a three-hour window to allow humanitarian aid in. Sweet reprieve! And it appears that this three-hour reprieve will be a daily thing, during which a Hamas spokesman said the group WILL NOT fire on Israel. This is a great move on Israel's part, and a great step forward for the whole situation.

Some aid workers say the humanitarian situation in the area while not be changed in the least by a three hour window. "When you are trying to feed 750,000 people a day in Gaza as we are, you need a permanent ceasefire. You can't do that in a three-hour window," said one. It still seems a positive move to me.

Major powers in the region continue working on a cease fire. Hamas has been largely boxed out of the dialog, for better or worse. My guess is, in the end, negotiating parties (Egypt and France, the United States in the background) are going to deal directly with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and guide them into a controlling position in the area. This may be a very good thing for the area for at least a little while.