A truce between Israel and Gaza militants that started at 05:00 GMT seems to be holding.
Israel says it has withdrawn all forces to positions outside Gaza, and some residents there are now returning to discover the fate of their homes.
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The truce has drawn an international welcome, and the focus for a longer deal will now fall on talks in Cairo.
In the meantime the BBC also reports that heavy fighting has erupted in a rebel stronghold of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. This while a small survey and assessment team dispatched by U.S. European Command has arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to advise in investigation and recovery efforts following the downing of Flight MH17 not too far from Donetsk, according to the Defense Department.
The team of about 12 service members will assess, advise and provide recommendations to the U.S. embassy and their staff about possible U.S. support to the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia and other countries that are conducting Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 recovery operations, Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said.
The troops provide expertise in recovery operations — specifically communications, logistics and surveying — and they will not leave Kyiv, Kirby noted.
“Recovery operations [are] something, tragically and unfortunately, the U.S. military has to do and has to be good at,” the admiral said.
Kirby adds that on Ukraine’s southeastern border, heavy equipment continues to flow back and forth across the border from Russia in support of separatists there, and that Russia continues to reinforce its troops in the area. More than 10,000 Russian troops are now located on the border, he said, adding that “numbers aren’t the key metric” in determining the troop presence’s effects on the region.
“What matters is that they [Russia] continue to reinforce these units, that they are very capable and very ready across what we call combined arms capabilities — armor, artillery, air defense, special forces — and that they are closer to the border than they were in the spring,” the admiral said.
“These units are not as numerous … but they’re very capable and they’re very close, and they are doing nothing but continuing to escalate the tension that exists inside eastern Ukraine,” Kirby said.
And indeed they can, and they have.
Back to the BBC:
At least two civilians were killed as government forces battled to retake [Donetsk] from pro-Russia separatists, Donetsk city council confirmed.
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Reports say powerful blasts and shooting were heard in the city.
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Ukrainian government forces have made steady gains in recent weeks, encircling Donetsk and another rebel stronghold, Luhansk.[..]
The Donetsk region has come under heavy shelling in recent weeks.
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At least 1,500 people, both civilians and combatants, are believed to have been killed and thousands more injured since Ukraine’s new government sent in troops to put down the insurrection in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The rebels have since been pushed back to their strongholds in the two cities of the same name, though other pockets of resistance remain.
Suddenly, Russia is concerned over the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, according to the BBC. Putin is apparently also concerned over the latest round of sanctions imposed by the West and has “ordered his government to prepare retaliatory measures against the latest round of Western sanctions imposed,” but measures that “must be carefully designed to avoid affecting Russian consumers.”
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The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.