Gaza is enjoying a short but long-awaited ceasefire. It started on Tuesday and is going to last 72 hours. Nobody knows as of yet whether this lull will be sustainable. But there are a number of very important elements that have already become blatant.First, the Israeli Defense Forces are not able to totally overtake the Palestinian resistance through conventional means of warfare. A land operation, using an important number of infantry is going to cost the Tsahal an unbearable number of casualties. The first three days of the land operation have shown that "urban warfare" will not help the Israeli Army to eradicate the ammunition and the fighters on the side of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Already, with more than 50 losses and one petty officer abducted, the land operation has given very alarming results. Israeli military sources have declared that all the tunnel structures of Hamas have been destroyed. This remains to be seen. Obviously, the missile stocks have not been annihilated. Israel will not want to risk the lives of its soldiers and civilians, as already 72 people have been killed.Second, the "underground resistance" system of Hamas shows that the latter has developed very sophisticated means of military organization. Even if the 32 tunnels have all been destroyed, it will not be very difficult for Hamas and other resistance groups to dig new tunnels and establish a web of underground systems, which will be very difficult to detect. The example is there, Israeli intelligence, despite the very heavy embargo on Gaza and continuous surveying, was not aware of the existence of these tunnels.Third, examples in history show that if a resistance has attained the degree of abnegation seen in Gaza, conventional military means will have immense difficulties in overcoming the opposition. The Japanese resistance to U.S. troops on Pacific islands by the end of World War II, the successful Viet Kong guerrilla warfare against the French and then the US armies between 1950 and 1975 and the French resistance in Paris against the occupying Wehrmacht taught us the efficiency of this kind of resistance.Israel, unless deporting the totality of the civilian population of Gaza, will not be able to deal militarily with such a desperate and well-organized resistance. The conflict in Gaza will also create similar forms of resistance in neighboring regions, to start with Sinai, the Golan and perhaps the Lebanese frontier. At a time when the statehood of environing countries is virtually evaporating, Tsahal only will not be able to establish a security parameter around Israel.At a time when Hamas was apparently at its weakest period, cut off from all supplying routes from everywhere, the Israeli military operations have shown their real strength. Despite heavy bombings of Gaza, despite totally disregarding immense collateral damage, resulting in hundreds of civilian losses, Israel has reached the limits of a military solution.It is high time for the Israelis to come to their senses and really start negotiating for a durable peace. It is high time for Hamas and the Islamic Jihad to stop the firing of rockets at Israel; a very high price has been paid and a new equation has emerged. More lives lost will not change anything. It is high time for democratic countries, to begin with the U.S., to really invest all their efforts to bring all concerned parties around a table, even using go-betweens. Enough lives have been lost, enough time has been lost and enough tragedies lived. It is definitely time for peace and negotiations, for a change.