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Last night it looked like a cease fire was taking hold in the Middle East. It came after a weekend of violence between Israel and Palestinian militant groups. In fact, this was the worst fighting between the two sides since war broke out in 2014. It all started Friday in Gaza, a Palestinian controlled territory of about 2 million people that borders the Mediterranean Sea. During weekly protests near the fence between Gaza and Israel, a sniper inside Gaza wounded two Israeli soldiers and Israel's military killed four Palestinians.
The violence got worse throughout the weekend. And by Monday Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two Palestinian militant groups, had fired 690 rockets into Israel, according to the nation's military. And Israel had launched air strikes against 350 militant targets. At least four people in Israel were killed. At least 23 people were killed in Gaza. And the two sides blamed each other for the attacks. The Israeli president said his nation would continue its, quote, "massive attacks against terrorist elements," and that Hamas was responsible and would pay a heavy price. The leader of Hamas in Gaza said quote, "The more atrocious the Israeli attacks on the Palestinian civilians are, the stronger the Palestinian response will be".
After intense diplomatic work by the United Nations and Egypt to get the two sides to stop fighting, it appeared that things had calmed down on Monday, though the leaders of Israel and Hamas were saying more attacks could be on the horizon. The United Nations specifically spoke out against the launches of rockets in the civilian areas of Israel. When that happens, Israel has what's called an Iron Dome Defense System in place.
