Rufiz Hafizoglu, Trend Arabic News Service Head
Despite Israel's threats to launch a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, the parties have ceased the military operations that were conducted in the region from Nov. 14 and agreed to a truce on Wednesday night.
The death of Mohammed al-Jabari, who was considered a "military engineer" of Hamas, in an Israeli airstrike was a great blow to the movement.
However, given that the ideological and military organizations of Palestinians living in Gaza are not tied to leaders, but rather to principles, the murder cannot be considered a tangible loss to Hamas.
As for the ceasefire, neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis assess truce unambiguously.
Naturally, the Palestinians regard the truce as a victory of the Islamic resistance. The visit by Arab officials and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutogluin to the region for the first time can be regarded as a diplomatic victory.
Some people consider the ceasefire to be a victory and others see it as the failure of Operation Pillar of Cloud in Israel.
If we compare the military operations of the Israeli army in Gaza, we see that the operation was much less effective compared to Cast Lead in 2008. There is a number of reasons why Israel, which has the most modern and efficient army in the region, has not achieved its goals. The main cause is a change in the political balance in the region. Hosni Mobarak is no longer the leader in Egypt as well, and this is a major reason as he was considered an ally of Israel. Another reason is the lack of stability zones around Israel, except for Jordan.
Given the presence of Hezbollah, which is considered to be a "state within a state," and the continuation of the bloody fighting in Syria, it is safe to say this ring around Israel is shrinking even more.
At the same time, the military operations in Gaza have affected the Israeli economy. Military actions in Gaza have cost $380 million daily for Israel, the Israeli Yediot Hahronot newspaper has reported. Israel spent $40,000 for to launch missiles and $1,500 to launch drone flights per hour.
However, there is hardly anyone who would believe that the truce reached between Israel and Hamas would take longer.