At last something that sounds like good news - Ceasefire agreed for Gaza Strip - :

Both Israel and the Palestinians have agreed on a halt to hostilities in the Gaza Strip, senior officials say.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has won a commitment from all militant groups to halt rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip, his office said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has in return agreed to halt hostilities, his spokeswoman said. The ceasefire will begin at 0600 (0400GMT) on Sunday.

That's after 400 Palestinian deaths since June, roughly half civilians, and three Israeli soldiers killed, plus at least two Israeli civilians killed by rockets fired from Gaza.

A sad waste. But perhaps something positive can start to happen now. Looking back, I suspect, two crucial episodes may be identified as crucial in helping bring this hopeful shift - the killing of 19 innocent civilians by what appears to have been a botched Israeli shelling a few weeks back, and the non-violent action which sparked of this thread.

If there really could be a recognition by Hamas that rockets and bombs are not an effective way of struggle, and by Israel that killing civilians is counter-productive...

What is desperately important will be that, if some maverick terrorist attack takes place, in the way that happened in Ireland after the ceasefire, it will not be taken by Israel as a signal to set the whole cycle of atrocity-reprisal-atrocity-reprisal in motion once again.