The Skies Over Israel and Gaza Are Quiet, For Now

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: A bit of a rocky start this morning to that fragile truce and cease-fire. Where do things stand now?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the cease-fire is holding, apart from the confrontations on the Haram esh-Sharif, for the Temple Mount. The guns and rockets have gone silent between Israel and Gaza. In fact, below me, in the main square of Gaza City, it’s a rather festive atmosphere, not a political celebration of any sort. But keep in mind that the month of Ramadan ended with — during the fighting, and now, finally, people are able are able to go out and celebrate the Eid, the Eid al-Adha, which marks the — excuse me — Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. But going around the city, certainly, or Gaza Strip, the Gaza Strip, one sees massive destruction. We were on one street where three buildings were hit in an Israeli airstrike at 1:30 in the morning on the 16th of May, leaving at least 42 people dead. One man told me that, after that experience — he lived right next door — he doesn’t want to have any children anymore out of fear for their future. Another woman told me it was like judgment day when she heard the explosion, and she thought they were — she and her children and her husband were all going to die. But now we have peace at the moment or calm in Gaza. The only reminder of Israel is the drone that buzzes constantly overhead. Now, Hamas is presenting this as a victory, perhaps not a political — a military victory, but it is something of a political victory, in the sense that they were able to present themselves as the defender of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and of Palestinian interests, at a time when the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, led by Mahmoud Abbas, seemed to be incapable of playing any role in this crisis whatsoever. But, again, the cease-fire is holding. The expectation, Bianna, is that it will hold perhaps for a few months, perhaps for a few years, before all the causes of this current crisis rise up again and there is yet another war between Gaza and Israel.