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Why This Gaza Ceasefire Is Holding

Palestinians wave Hamas flags as they celebrate in Gaza City on August 27, 2014, during a rally following a deal hailed by Israel and the Islamist movement as 'victory' in the 50-day war. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)
Palestinians wave Hamas flags as they celebrate in Gaza City on August 27, 2014, during a rally following a deal hailed by Israel and the Islamist movement as 'victory' in the 50-day war. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)

The latest ceasefire between the militant group Hamas and Israel appears to be holding, allowing thousands of Palestinians to return home and Israelis to send children back to school without worrying about rocket fire.

“The odds — and I’m being cautious here — favor traction for this ceasefire unlike all the others, and the reasons I think are very clear. Both sides are exhausted, both politically and from a military point of view,” veteran Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller told Here & Now’s Robin Young.

But that doesn’t mean that the underlying issues are resolved.

“We should be under no illusion, either on the Israeli or the Hamas side, that this solves the strategic problem that separates either Israel and Hamas, or the other dimension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel and the Palestinian president,” Miller said. “The truce, if that’s what it is, has accomplished neither of those objectives.”

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