As of this writing, the fragile ceasefire announced on August 26 in the Gaza Strip is still holding. Obviously, the two parties are not eager to resume fighting. An immediate denial was issued after Hamas leader and former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh was quoted as saying that Hamas will return to fighting at the end of the month if talks do not resume and no progress is made on substantial issues such as lifting the siege, releasing Palestinian prisoners, and paying the salaries of the 40,000 civil workers hired by Hamas after the rift with the Ramallah Fatah leadership in 2007.

While there are no guarantees that this fragile ceasefire will survive for long, international concern about the misery in Gaza is cooling down. The war was a dramatic-tragic war which attracted the attention of an "audience" almost all over the world. But with the continued ceasefire, this attention is gradually fading away. The international agenda is full of other international conflic
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