 The three-day-long Israeli attack on Gaza, which killed at least 44 Palestinians and wounded over 350, ended on Sunday, August 8th. This followed a ceasefire agreement between the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Israel mediated by Egypt. Contrary to Israeli claims that its airstrikes targeted leaders of the Islamic Jihad, most of the casualties were Palestinian civilians, including 15 children. The truth was agreed on the condition that Israel will take steps to end its blockade of Gaza and release two Islamic Jihad leaders currently imprisoned in Israeli jails. Though the ceasefire has been effective so far, Israeli raids inside Gaza continued until the last moment before the truth came into force. Israel's airstrikes began on Friday after it announced that it would target Islamic Jihad leaders and members in Gaza. Palestinian resistance groups also fired hundreds of rockets in self-defense, causing air raid silence to go off across the southern and central areas of Israel. The airstrikes came just days after Israel arrested two senior Islamic Jihad leaders in the occupied West Bank, who they accused of carrying out attacks against Israeli citizens. Earlier last week, Israel had closed two of its border crossings with Gaza. Gaza is already under a suffocating land air and sea blockade from Israel on one side and Egypt on the other since 2007. This has caused its economy to collapse and made the majority of the civilians dependent on international humanitarian assistance for their daily survival. It has also caused a rise in poverty and unemployment. The multiple Israeli invasions of Gaza in the last two decades and bombing campaigns in recent years have also killed thousands of Palestinians and injured tens of thousands. The airstrikes have also destroyed civilian and medical infrastructure in Gaza, resulting in an acute shortage of hospitals, medicines, beds, and advanced treatment. Francisco Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, asserted that there is no justification for Israeli aggression inside occupied Palestine. She termed the aggression illegal, immoral, and irresponsible. The US and the UK issued statements on Friday claiming that the stand by Israel's right to self-defense. The attacks come months ahead of the Israeli election scheduled for November 1st. Similar raids were carried out in May last year for 11 consecutive days in which over 260 Palestinians were killed and over 2,000 injured. In addition to the devastating death toll, the bombings also completely destroyed more than 1,000 residential units, dozens of hospitals, clinics, schools, and other infrastructure. Half of the electricity lines in Gaza were also destroyed in the attack. This has worsened the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has been under blockade for the last 15 years.