Religion Magazine
Hamas has requested a 2-3 hour ceasefire... so that they can clear out the dead bodies from the streets and bury them, and also clear out some people who are injured.. It seems like the Red Cross in Gaza actually made the request, which Hamas supposedly agreed to but Israel supposedly rejected it.
the truth is that Israel has rejected a general cease-fire, but agreed to a 2 hour cease-fire specifically in the Saja'iyya neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, where the heavy fighting had taken place this mornign with tens of Hamas terrorists being killed in the fighting.
This reminded me of the reason why we say the bracha of hatov vHameitiv - the fourth bracha of our bentching after eating a meal. On 15 Av the Romans allowed the jewish people to remove the dead bodies from the streets for burial. The gemara relates that when the jewish community went out to retrieve the bodies, they discovered that the bodies had not decayed or rotted at all. but had remained preserved for burial.
I dont know what the situation of the bodies of the Hamas fighters left in the streets of Saja'iyya were in, but whether in pristine condition (unlikely) or in bad condition, it is good to let the bodies be buried. Of course I think terrorists bodies (and only bodies of terrorists, not civilians killed by accident) should be buried wrapped in pigskin or together with some other pig product, but that is besides the point.
Sure enough, the cease-fire was short-lived, with Hamas taking advantage of the brief quiet to restock mosques with missiles, but more tragically, to shoot missiles at Israel and to fire at the IDF.... you can lead a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink...
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