Less than three weeks after the agreement was declared, Israel launched “Operation Returning Echo,” on March 9, 2012, allegedly to preempt a major attack that was being planned from the Gaza Strip. This assault was the most violent since Cast Lead and lasted for close to a week, killing twenty-seven Palestinians, effectively ending the ceasefire that had been negotiated in 2009.100 Israel had reportedly been worried about weapon smuggling through the Sinai tunnels into the Gaza Strip and was seeking to reassert its dominance.101 But the timing of the attack raised suspicions that Israel was
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