Israel and Hamas agree to Gaza cease-fire
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israel and the Hamas militant group agreed to a cease-fire Wednesday to end eight days of the fiercest fighting in nearly four years, promising to halt attacks on each other and ease an Israeli blockade constricting the Gaza Strip.
The deal was brokered by the new Islamist government of Egypt, solidifying its role as a leader in the quickly shifting Middle East after two days of intense shuttle diplomacy that saw U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton race to the region. Under the agreement, Egypt will play a key role in maintaining the peace.
Standing next to Clinton, Egypt's foreign minister, Mohammed Kamel Amr, announced the breakthrough and said the deal was set to take effect at 9 p.m. local time. (2 p.m. EDT), capping days of intense efforts that drew the world's top diplomats into the fray.
The agreement will "improve conditions for the people of Gaza and provide security for the people of Israel," Clinton said at the news conference in Cairo.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he agreed to the cease-fire after consulting with President Barack Obama.
Israel launched the fierce Israeli offensive in Gaza on Nov. 14 to stop months of intensifying rocket attacks, subjecting t. Even after the deal was announced, air raid sirens continued to wail in southern Israel.
In the last-minute burst of fire, Palestinian militants fired several bursts of rockets, Israeli authorities said. One rocket hit a house in the southern city of Beersheba, police said. No injuries were reported.
Israel launched well over 1,500 airstrikes and other attacks on targets in Gaza, while more than 1,000 rockets pounded Israel. In all, more than 140 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, were killed, while five Israelis died in the fighting.
According to a copy of the agreement obtained by The Associated Press, Israel and all Palestinian militant groups agreed to halt "all hostilities." For the Palestinians, that means an end to Israeli airstrikes and assassinations of wanted militants. For Israel, it brings a halt to rocket fire and attempts at cross-border incursions from Gaza.
After a 24-hour cooling off period, it calls for "opening the crossings and facilitating the movement of people and transfer of goods, and refraining from restricting residents free movement."
Hamas officials said details on the new border arrangements would have to be negotiated.
Israel imposed its blockade of Gaza after Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israel's destruction, seized control of the territory five years ago. It has gradually eased the closure, but continues to restrict the movement of certain goods through Israeli-controlled crossings. Among the restrictions: a near-complete ban on exports, limited movement of people leaving the territory, and limits on construction materials that Israel says could be used for military use.
The deal was vague on what limits Israel would lift, and whether Gaza's southern passenger terminal on the Egyptian border would be expanded to allow cargo to pass through as well. The deal was also unclear about a key Israeli demand for an end to arms smuggling into Gaza in tunnels underneath the border with Egypt.
Under the agreement, Egypt will play a key role. It said "Egypt shall receive assurances from each party" that they are committed to the deal.
"Each party shall commit itself not to perform any acts that would break this understanding," it adds. "In case of any observations, Egypt - as the sponsor of this understanding - shall be informed to follow up."
The deal marked a key victory for Egypt's new Islamist government, which is caught in a balancing act between its allegiance to Hamas and its need to maintain good relations with Israel and the U.S. Hamas is an offshoot of Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood.
The agreement came after Clinton shuttled across the region to help broker an end to the violence. She ended her meetings in Cairo, where Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi mediated between Israel and Hamas. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon also flew across the region as part of the diplomatic cease-fire push.
Hours before the the deal was announced, a bomb exploded on a bus in Tel Aviv near Israel's military headquarters that wounded 27 people and led to fears of a breakdown in the shuttle diplomacy Clinton and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon were conducting in the region.
The blast, which left the bus charred and its windows blown out, was the first bombing in Tel Aviv since 2006. It appeared aimed at sparking Israeli fears of a return to the violence of the Palestinian uprising last decade, which killed more than 1,000 Israelis in bombings and shooting attacks and left more than 5,000 Palestinians dead as well.
The blast was from a device placed inside the bus by a man who then got off, said Yitzhak Aharonovich, Israel's minister of internal security,
While Hamas did not take responsibility for the attack, it praised the bombing.
"We consider it a natural response to the occupation crimes and the ongoing massacres against civilians in the Gaza Strip," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told The Associated Press.
Bassem Ezbidi, a West Bank political analyst, said it was unlikely Hamas itself was behind the attack, since it would not want to risk losing any of the international support it gained in recent days.
"If Hamas wants to target civilians it would do so by firing rockets, but not by buses because such attacks left a negative record in the minds of people. Hamas doesn't need this now," he said.
The bombing came as 10,000 Palestinians sought shelter in 12 U.N.-run schools, after Israel dropped leaflets urging residents to vacate their homes in some areas of Gaza to avoid being hit by airstrikes, said Adnan Abu Hassna, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency spokesman.
The influx of displaced people came a day after the head of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, warned that the agency urgently needed $12 million to continue distributing food to the neediest Gazans. The agency runs schools, shelters and food programs for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees and their descendants in Gaza.
Huge clouds of black smoke rose above the Gaza City skyline Wednesday as airstrikes pounded a sports stadium, used as a launch site for rocket attacks on Israel in the past, and a high-rise office building housing Hamas-affiliated media offices, but also Agence France-Presse.
AFP reporters said they evacuated their fourth-floor office Tuesday, after an initial strike targeted sixth-floor offices linked to Hamas and other smaller factions.
A 4-year-old boy was killed in the second attack on the high-rise Wednesday, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said. The boy, Abdel-Rahman Naim, was in his family apartment in the building when he was struck by shrapnel and died on the way to Gaza's Shifa Hospital, al-Kidra said.
Washington blames Hamas rocket fire for the outbreak of violence and has backed Israel's right to defend itself, but has cautioned that an Israeli ground invasion could send casualties soaring.
The deal was brokered by the new Islamist government of Egypt, solidifying its role as a leader in the quickly shifting Middle East after two days of intense shuttle diplomacy that saw U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton race to the region. Under the agreement, Egypt will play a key role in maintaining the peace.
Standing next to Clinton, Egypt's foreign minister, Mohammed Kamel Amr, announced the breakthrough and said the deal was set to take effect at 9 p.m. local time. (2 p.m. EDT), capping days of intense efforts that drew the world's top diplomats into the fray.
The agreement will "improve conditions for the people of Gaza and provide security for the people of Israel," Clinton said at the news conference in Cairo.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he agreed to the cease-fire after consulting with President Barack Obama.
Israel launched the fierce Israeli offensive in Gaza on Nov. 14 to stop months of intensifying rocket attacks, subjecting t. Even after the deal was announced, air raid sirens continued to wail in southern Israel.
In the last-minute burst of fire, Palestinian militants fired several bursts of rockets, Israeli authorities said. One rocket hit a house in the southern city of Beersheba, police said. No injuries were reported.
Israel launched well over 1,500 airstrikes and other attacks on targets in Gaza, while more than 1,000 rockets pounded Israel. In all, more than 140 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, were killed, while five Israelis died in the fighting.
According to a copy of the agreement obtained by The Associated Press, Israel and all Palestinian militant groups agreed to halt "all hostilities." For the Palestinians, that means an end to Israeli airstrikes and assassinations of wanted militants. For Israel, it brings a halt to rocket fire and attempts at cross-border incursions from Gaza.
After a 24-hour cooling off period, it calls for "opening the crossings and facilitating the movement of people and transfer of goods, and refraining from restricting residents free movement."
Hamas officials said details on the new border arrangements would have to be negotiated.
Israel imposed its blockade of Gaza after Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israel's destruction, seized control of the territory five years ago. It has gradually eased the closure, but continues to restrict the movement of certain goods through Israeli-controlled crossings. Among the restrictions: a near-complete ban on exports, limited movement of people leaving the territory, and limits on construction materials that Israel says could be used for military use.
The deal was vague on what limits Israel would lift, and whether Gaza's southern passenger terminal on the Egyptian border would be expanded to allow cargo to pass through as well. The deal was also unclear about a key Israeli demand for an end to arms smuggling into Gaza in tunnels underneath the border with Egypt.
Under the agreement, Egypt will play a key role. It said "Egypt shall receive assurances from each party" that they are committed to the deal.
"Each party shall commit itself not to perform any acts that would break this understanding," it adds. "In case of any observations, Egypt - as the sponsor of this understanding - shall be informed to follow up."
The deal marked a key victory for Egypt's new Islamist government, which is caught in a balancing act between its allegiance to Hamas and its need to maintain good relations with Israel and the U.S. Hamas is an offshoot of Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood.
The agreement came after Clinton shuttled across the region to help broker an end to the violence. She ended her meetings in Cairo, where Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi mediated between Israel and Hamas. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon also flew across the region as part of the diplomatic cease-fire push.
Hours before the the deal was announced, a bomb exploded on a bus in Tel Aviv near Israel's military headquarters that wounded 27 people and led to fears of a breakdown in the shuttle diplomacy Clinton and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon were conducting in the region.
The blast, which left the bus charred and its windows blown out, was the first bombing in Tel Aviv since 2006. It appeared aimed at sparking Israeli fears of a return to the violence of the Palestinian uprising last decade, which killed more than 1,000 Israelis in bombings and shooting attacks and left more than 5,000 Palestinians dead as well.
The blast was from a device placed inside the bus by a man who then got off, said Yitzhak Aharonovich, Israel's minister of internal security,
While Hamas did not take responsibility for the attack, it praised the bombing.
"We consider it a natural response to the occupation crimes and the ongoing massacres against civilians in the Gaza Strip," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told The Associated Press.
Bassem Ezbidi, a West Bank political analyst, said it was unlikely Hamas itself was behind the attack, since it would not want to risk losing any of the international support it gained in recent days.
"If Hamas wants to target civilians it would do so by firing rockets, but not by buses because such attacks left a negative record in the minds of people. Hamas doesn't need this now," he said.
The bombing came as 10,000 Palestinians sought shelter in 12 U.N.-run schools, after Israel dropped leaflets urging residents to vacate their homes in some areas of Gaza to avoid being hit by airstrikes, said Adnan Abu Hassna, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency spokesman.
The influx of displaced people came a day after the head of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, warned that the agency urgently needed $12 million to continue distributing food to the neediest Gazans. The agency runs schools, shelters and food programs for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees and their descendants in Gaza.
Huge clouds of black smoke rose above the Gaza City skyline Wednesday as airstrikes pounded a sports stadium, used as a launch site for rocket attacks on Israel in the past, and a high-rise office building housing Hamas-affiliated media offices, but also Agence France-Presse.
AFP reporters said they evacuated their fourth-floor office Tuesday, after an initial strike targeted sixth-floor offices linked to Hamas and other smaller factions.
A 4-year-old boy was killed in the second attack on the high-rise Wednesday, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said. The boy, Abdel-Rahman Naim, was in his family apartment in the building when he was struck by shrapnel and died on the way to Gaza's Shifa Hospital, al-Kidra said.
Washington blames Hamas rocket fire for the outbreak of violence and has backed Israel's right to defend itself, but has cautioned that an Israeli ground invasion could send casualties soaring.
'Israel and Hamas agree to Gaza cease-fire'....
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Until next week, when some Palestinian militant group or individual decides to lob a grenade, fashion an IED, strap a bomb vest or fire a rocket into Israel for some ideological reason.Â
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Which, of course, will receive little (if any) press coverage.Â
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Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.
Can't help but wonder how long it will be before Hamas starts bombing Israel again. I have to also wonder if there will ever be peace in the Middle East. I have my doubts it will ever happen.
 @scoreboard Already happened. The rockets keep coming:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/162371#.UK0u34YcZ8E
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 @Julie I guess I shouldn't be surprised.....
Can't help but wonder if the Hamas was running out of missiles and this is just a pause while they rearm.....
 @KHEB Nope, Hamas got plenty and they keep coming.
 @KHEB Waiting on the next shipment of weaponry from Iran. In addition their region, Hamas sympathizers and buildings were getting hammered by Israeli's. It's easy to pick a fight and then tuck tail and run when you're getting pounded.
To resume at a later date.
So now they can both re-load and get ready to start it all over again!
 @Justmark Actually Israel does not need to 'reload'. Israel's military force is large enough to level the whole Gaza and all the other unfriendly neighbors, however, Israel chooses restrain to please the world and to screw up its own citizens.
That's how it always goes. Hamas starts the aggression, Israel targets the Hamas leaders, Hamas leaders get scared and surrender.
The odds of the cease -fire actually happening are as good as the odds of Obama causing the unemployment rate in America to actually drop below  7% in the next four years.
 @last boyscout ~  I think it could "happen", all right... but I just wonder how long it'll LAST..!
I just feel sorry for the innocent civilians on both sides of this... what a m-e-s-s..!
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Ever notice that when the media shows Palestinians they always show blood and wailing people but when they show an attack on Israel, there is seldom blood or even people shown? And never any significant damage. The bus damage is about the worst. The fact that a number of people were wounded (we aren't told if they are serious injuries) is mostly played down. Is there an anti-Israeli bias in the media?
 @Nobody Anti-Israel bias? Ya think?Â
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It's always portrayed as Israel starting this but that's rarely the case.Â
Report: Netanyahu Told Obama â I Agree to CeasefireAccording to Egyptian foreign minister, ceasefire will go into force at 9:00 p.m. By Gil Ronen First Publish: 11/21/2012, 7:46 PM NetanyahuIsraelÂ
According to the latest reports from Cairo and Israel, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday evening and asked him to agree to abide by a ceasefire with Hamas.
The terms of the ceasefire are not known.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Cairo and she is expected to make an announcement regarding the ceasefire. Egypt's foreign minister has told reporters the agreement will go into force at 9:00 p.m., local time.
Demonstrators in Israel's South called on Netanyahu not to agree to a ceasefire, but to restore deterrence and security. A Channel 2 political analyst noted that the demonstrators are largely Likud voters and said Netanyahu will have a problem with these voters if he agrees to a ceasefire at present.
(Reuters) - Israel and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt on the eighth day of intensive Israeli fire on the Gaza Strip and militant rocket attacks out of the enclave, Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said.
First word of the truce came from a Palestinian official who has knowledge of the negotiations in Cairo, where U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also pursuing peace efforts.
Asked whether a ceasefire deal had been reached, an Egyptian official in Cairo said: "Yes, and Egypt will announce it."
Egyptian state TV had earlier said a news conference would be broadcast from President Mohamed Mursi's palace shortly.
Israeli sources said Israel had agreed to a truce, but would not lift its blockade of the Palestinian territory, which is run by the Islamist Hamas movement.
All the sources declined to be named or to give further details of the arrangements hammered out in Cairo.
More than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed in the fighting that began last Wednesday.
The ceasefire, if confirmed, was forged despite a bus bomb explosion that wounded 15 Israelis in Tel Aviv earlier in the day and despite more Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.
After talks in Ramallah with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Clinton held a second meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before travelling to Egypt for discussions with Mursi, whose country has led mediation efforts.
In Tel Aviv, targeted by rockets from Gaza that either did not hit the city or were shot down by Israel's Iron Dome interceptor system, 15 people were wounded when a bus was blown up near the Defence Ministry and military headquarters.
The blast, which police said was caused by a bomb placed on the vehicle, 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, in attacks that medical officials said killed 10 people, among them a 2-year-old boy.
Israel's best-selling Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper had reported an emerging outline of a ceasefire agreement that called for Egypt to announce a 72-hour ceasefire followed by further talks on long-term understandings.
Under the proposed document, which the newspaper said neither party would be required to sign, Israel would hold its fire, end attacks against top militants and promise to examine ways to ease its blockade of Gaza, controlled by Hamas Islamists who do not recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.
Hamas, the report said, would pledge not to strike any Israeli target and ensure other Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip also stop their attacks.
Israel has carried out more than 1,500 strikes since the offensive began with the killing of a top Hamas commander and with declared aim of deterring Hamas from launching rocket attacks that have long disrupted life in its southern towns.
Medical officials in Gaza said 146 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, including 36 children, have been killed in Israel's offensive. Nearly 1,400 rockets have been fired into Israel, killing four civilians and a soldier, the military said.
(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis and Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo)
I find it amazing that no one got killed in the bus explosion.
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It seems like everything would work out ok if we could just relocate the Palestinian population to their own land far away from Israel. I'm thinking Antarctica would suffice.
Do you think for one minute the United States would negotiate for peace with Hamas? It's truly amazing Hillary Clinton and Obama would advocate for peace between Hamas and Israel. Last I checked the United States isn't supposed to deal in anyway shape or form with terrorists. It's truly disgusting our administration would ask others to do what we wouldn't.
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Do you feel because all administrations have asked Israel to make peace with terrorists it should continue? Do you think for one minute the United States would listen to others pertaining to peace with Al Qaeda?
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Hamas terrorists, where in your 'religion of peace' does it state that you should murder Israelis and then drag their bodies through the streets of Gaza with your motorcycle's? Look for the photos, they are all over the internet. But for some reason, the story isn't on this site.Â
 @last boyscout Yes LUB, the story isn't on this site.  But what are you doing looking at CNN.  Oh no, that's a fish wrapper site!  Really LUB, you can do better than this.  Let see that real hate of yours.Â
Quick Obama! Â Send Mrs. Clinton or Susan Rice to lie and do the five weekend talk shows to announce that this attack was done due to a VIDEO! Obama, you did this before and got away with it, why not try the same BS story again?
@JohnQ, I agree with you that Iran is probably stirring the pot to divert attention from their nuclear program and Syria.
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On another web site though they were floating the idea that Israel is using Gaza as practice for Iran...
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How would you suggest Iran get significant ground forces to Israel? Across Kurdish Iraq and then Syria? Up through the Red Sea through the Gulf of Aqaba, or use the Suez Canal?
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@TimBurr, Klingons are honorable warriors. They don't hid behind women and children.
 @WebFootSTi Iran is sure stirring the pot and so does Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Somalia, etc. No matter how much Muslims hate each other, they hate Israel in a perfect union.
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For Muslim countries fighting Israel is the same easy way to boost popularity of any leader as defending middle class, improving education and fighting crime and unemployment in US.
A cease fire will only happen when Hamas runs out of rockets. When they receive the next supply from Iran, any cease fire is over. And by the way, what kind of cowards set up rocket launchers in schools and use civilians as shields. Muslim cowards that's who !
What a peacefull religion. NOT!!!!!
Typical games: Palestinians (Iran) blow up a bus, Israel retaliates, kills a bunch of "innocent people" and Palestinians look like martyrs, the knee jerk Muslim world gets more angry, objective complete.
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Palestinians launch rockets next to a school, Israel retaliates, kills a bunch of "innocent people", Palestinians look like martyrs, the Muslim world gets more angry, objective complete.
I think Klingons would behave more civil
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/21/us-israel-telaviv-bus-explosion-idUSBRE8AK0HS20121121
Somebody wants to keep this war going and I suspect it's Iran. They're likely using Hamas to soften up the Israeli military so they can invade and wipe Israel off the map. The bus bombing was a provocation to get Israel to invade Gaza where Hamas has established kill zones and booby traps.
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If Iran gets involved the US will join forces with Israel and then the rest of the world will start picking which side they want to play on and we'll have another world war for the history books.
@JohnQ.Public
That is a likely scenario. Iran went to far to stop its nuclear program, so they are going to get the bomb. Israel can not allow it because if hamas puts a nuke on one of those rockets, the whole Israel becomes ashes. So Israel has to take Iran's nukes out, but the only way to do it at this point it to nuke Iran. So here we have another world war for the history books - this time nuclear, so not too many people will be left to read the books.
You're not alone . . . .  http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/21/opinion/ghitis-israel-hamas-iran/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
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@last boyscout Time to exterminate the Rats.