Despite the recent calm following Tuesday's agreement on a month-long cease-fire, residents of the communities adjacent to the Israel-Gaza Strip border, who have begun returning to their homes, are struggling to believe the truce will hold. "Hamas has a clear interest to enter a cease-fire now," said Aharon Nahmani of Kibbutz Shaar Hanegev. "Primarily to gather its strength, reorganize, re-arm, rest and recuperate before the next round; and it is only a matter of time. I live in the Middle East, and moreover, I live close enough to the Gaza Strip to know exactly who we're dealing with, and I am not fooling myself for one moment that this cease-fire will last." Nahmani's considerable pessimism is shared by a large number of the area's residents. However, many of them returned home on Thursday with their children, including to the kibbutzim of Nahal Oz and Nirim, which lost members in deadly rocket and mortar attacks in the final week of the hostilities. Meanwhile, schools throughout the Gaza vicinity communities were preparing for the upcoming school year, set to begin on Monday. One resident returning to her home was Orit Nahmias-Yosef of Kibbutz Netiv Haasara. Her and her husband, Sagi, left the kibbutz with their three small children at the onset of the fighting and never trusted the previous cease-fires declared by Israel and Hamas. "For eight weeks my family crisscrossed the country in our car: from the center to the north," Nahmias-Yosef said, emphasizing that no one is happier than her to return home with her children, "because home is home, and there is no place like home." According to Nahmias-Yosef, "48 hours after the latest cease-fire declaration, today [Thursday] we returned home. Two days of quiet, and we are back. And the kids are happy, even though I haven't managed to buy anything yet for the beginning of the school year. The kids are happy they are back, because this is their home, these are their beds, where their friends are and the place they are very familiar with. They are happy because they don't have to be in safe areas. And there are no more Color Red sirens." Nahmias-Yosef, said she believes the current cease-fire will hold. "While Hamas will flex its muscles in the negotiations, the bottom line is that they will understand the rationale behind coming to an arrangement of quiet with us, for the sake of both sides," she said.
