So can you really say you have a ceasefire if one side has spent the night bombing the other, killing dozens of people? Can a peace deal encompass such violence?

It is an unanswerable question. Logic, pragmatism, politics, morality and diplomacy all roll into each other. Optimism butts up against pessimism.

But, right now, a form of pragmatic diplomacy probably comes out on top.

Israel felt it had no choice but to respond to what it saw as intolerable provocations by Hamas .

Firstly, there was the killing of a soldier who was, according to the IDF, involved in engineering works behind the yellow line.

The last time Israeli soldiers were killed during this ceasefire, reprisal attacks killed dozens of Palestinians, and it would have been naive to think that things would change this

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