Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement agreed on Wednesday to an Egyptian-sponsored ceasefire to halt an eight-day conflict around the Gaza Strip.
The conflict has killed more than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis.
Announcing the ceasefire in Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr said it would come into force at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) – which would give 1.7 million Palestinians respite from days of ferocious air strikes and halt rocket attacks from Gaza that for the first time reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
A flurry of explosions shook the city of Gaza as the truce deadline approached and several rockets landed in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Amr said mediation efforts had “resulted in understandings to cease fire, restoration calm and halted the bloodshed.”
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, standing alongside him, thanked Egypt’s new Islamist President Mohamed Morsi for his peace efforts, saying his government was assuming “responsibility and leadership” in the region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S President Barack Obama he was ready to give the ceasefire a chance, but that “more forceful action” might be needed if it failed, according to a statement from his office.
Obama in turn reiterated his country’s commitment to Israel’s security and pledged to seek funds for a joint missile defence programme, the White House said.
Senior Hamas lawmaker Ahmed Bahar said Israel had “submitted to the conditions and demands set by the resistance” and he hailed the outcome as a triumph.”
“Resistance achieved a historical victory against the occupation and laid the foundation for the battle of liberation of the full land and sacred sites,” Bahar, deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament, said in a statement from his office.
According to a text of the agreement seen by Reuters, both sides should halt all hostilities, with Israel desisting from incursions and targeting of individuals, while all Palestinian factions should cease rocket fire and cross-border attacks.
The deal also provides for easing Israeli restrictions on Gaza’s residents, who live in what British Prime Minister David Cameron has called an “open prison”.
The text said procedures for implementing this would be “dealt with after 24 hours from the start of the ceasefire.”
The ceasefire was forged in spite of a bus bomb explosion that wounded 15 Israelis in Tel Aviv earlier in the day and in spite of more Israeli air strikes that killed 10 Gazans.
The Tel Aviv blast, near the Israeli Defence Ministry, touched off celebratory gunfire from militants in Gaza and had threatened to complicate truce efforts.
It was the first serious bombing in Israel’s commercial capital since 2006.
In Gaza, Israel struck more than 100 targets, including a cluster of Hamas government buildings.
