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GAZA STRIP, Palestinian territories – Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip stepped back from the brink on Monday as a fragile truce after 3 days of warring came into effect.

With fatalities on both sides, starting with a sniper's fire from Palestinian militants during the Great Right of Return march on Friday, to retaliatory aerial bombing of miltant targets by the Israel Air Force, retaliatory barrages of rockets from  the militants, and retailatory assassinations of Hamas leaders, the tit-for-tat drama had the hallmarks of breaking out into another so-called war, this on the eve of the United States preparing next month to unveil a proposal for a permanent peace deal.

Instead the hostilities petered out. Israel meantime suffered its first civilian fatality in five years. The last time an Israeli civilian died as a result of hostilities from Gaza was during the 2014 'war.' In fact four Israeli civilians have died during the past three days. The casualties on the Palestinian side have been even greater.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged that the Israeli campaign is not over. "Over the last two days we struck Hamas and Islamic Jihad with great force," he said Monday. "We hit over 350 targets. We struck at terrorist leaders and operatives and we destroyed terrorist buildings. The campaign is not over and it demands patience and sagacity. We are prepared to continue. The goal has been, and remains, ensuring quiet and security for the residents of the south. I send condolences to the families and best wishes for recovery to the wounded."

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres has urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint.

Deploring the "risk of yet another dangerous escalation and further loss of life on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan," on Sunday, the UN chief condemned "in the strongest terms the launching of rockets from Gaza into Israel, particularly the targeting of civilian population centres."

He urged all parties to "exercise maximum restraint, immediately de-escalate and return to the understandings of the past few months," referring to the Egyptian-brokered and UN-backed ceasefire, which was recently agreed. 
 
The UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, issued a similar call for calm on Saturday and continues to work closely with Egypt and all concerned parties to restore calm.

'Against a backdrop of longstanding shortages of basic goods and services in Gaza linked to a more than decade-long air, sea and land blockade by Israel, Palestinian protests began over a year ago in the Strip. In an ongoing cycle of violence, close to 200 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 40 children, and over 1,300 have been injured,' a UN statement issued Sunday said.

(File photo, credit: UN/Shareef Sarhan).