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Subscribe to RSSIf the cease-fire holds for 24 hours, Israel will start talking about lifting border control on Gaza. In the meantime, Israeli ground troops remain mobilized in case Hamas resumes rocket attacks from Gaza. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
Updated at 4 p.m. ET: Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire Wednesday, ending eight days of fighting that killed more than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis.
“The United States welcomes the agreement today for the cease-fire in Gaza," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a news conference alongside Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr. "This is a critical moment for the region."
The cease-fire started at 9 p.m. Cairo time (2 p.m. ET). Hundreds took to the streets of Gaza City to celebrate the cease-fire, NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reported. Celebratory gun fire erupted across the city, whose streets gradually filled with crowds waving Palestinian flags. Ululating women leaned out of windows and fireworks lit up the sky.
"Allahu akbar, (God is greatest), dear people of Gaza you won," blared mosque loudspeakers in the enclave as the truce took effect. "You have broken the arrogance of the Jews."
Both sides fought right up to 9 p.m., when hostilities were due to stop, with several explosions shaking Gaza City and rockets hitting the Israeli city of Beersheba.
If it holds, the truce will give 1.7 million Gazans respite from days of ferocious air strikes and halt rocket salvoes from militants that unnerved a million people in southern Israel and reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time.
During the Cairo news conference, Clinton thanked Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi for his mediation efforts and pledged to work with partners in the region "to consolidate this progress, improve conditions for the people of Gaza, provide security for the people of Israel."
In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the agreement, adding that he had spoken with President Barack Obama and had agreed to fight together against "weapons of terror."
"Israel cannot sit with its arms folded against its enemies," he said in a news conference.
Hamas paid a big price for what it believes was its return to the world stage. With more than 160 dead, and over 1200 injured, Gazans and their government buildings have endured numerous attacks. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
Netanyahu paid tribute to U.S. diplomacy and Morsi's leadership, but also to Israel's resolve and the armed forces.
"I am proud to be your prime minister," he said.
According to the cease-fire agreement: Israel will stop attacks on Gaza by land, sea and air and stop incursions and targeted assassinations; Palestinian factions will stop hostilities from the Gaza Strip against Israel; Israel will ease the movement of people and goods at border-crossing areas.
Egypt is the "sponsor" of the cease-fire agreement.
In comments following the cease-fire announcement, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the army had been effective, achieving maximum destruction to Hamas with minimum loss of civilian life.
Barak added that the Iron Dome defense system was "an exceptional success," knocking down 500 incoming missiles.
The exiled leader of Hamas said that if Israel complied with the cease-fire, Palestinians would as well but they would respond to any Israeli violation.
"If Israel complies, we are compliant. If it does not comply, our hands are on the trigger," Khaled Meshaal said in Cairo.
Meshaal also thanked Egypt for helping mediate the Gaza ceasefire and praised Iran for providing Gazans with financing and arms.
The cease-fire that capped a day of 130 rocket attacks, brought relief to the region but also skepticism – especially so soon after a man bombed a bus in Tel Aviv, then escaped. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.
"We have come out of this battle with our heads up high," he said, adding that Israel had been defeated and failed in its "adventure."
"It failed, praise be to God," Meshaal said of Israel's eight days of attacks on Gaza, which the Jewish state said were meant to stop increasing Palestinian rocket fire from the enclave targeting its cities and towns.
Hours before the cease-fire announcement, an explosion on a bus in Tel Aviv injured 19 people, three of them seriously, an official told NBC News.
Tel Aviv police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the U.K.'s Sky News that the bus blast took place in the heart of the city and that the surrounding area had been cordoned off as police searched for suspects.
"This was a terrorist attack," Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Netanyahu, told Reuters.
The White House condemned the attack as "outrageous." In a statement, it reaffirmed the United States' "unshakable commitment to Israel's security and our deep friendship and solidarity with the Israeli people."
A bomb ripped through a bus in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, wounding at least 16 people. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri praised the bombing, but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
"Hamas blesses the attack in Tel Aviv and sees it as a natural response to the Israeli massacres...in Gaza," he told Reuters. "Palestinian factions will resort to all means in order to protect our Palestinian civilians in the absence of a world effort to stop the Israeli aggression."
More photos: Explosion hits bus in Tel Aviv
Sweet cakes were handed out in celebration of the blast in Gaza's main hospital, which has been inundated with wounded from the round-the-clock Israeli bombing and shelling, Reuters reported. Celebratory gunfire rang out in Gaza City when local radio stations reported the news.
The last time Israel's commercial capital was hit by a serious bomb blast was in April 2006, when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11 people at a sandwich stand near the city's old central bus station.
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Analysis: Why Hezbollah is sitting out the Gaza conflict
'We are very scared': Egyptians fear being mired in Gaza-Israel crisis
'Army must invade': In southern Israel, support grows for action in Gaza
Americans caught in chaos of Gaza conflict
Like most Western powers, Washington shuns Hamas as an obstacle to peace and has blamed it for the Gaza conflagration.
A U.N. Security Council statement condemning the conflict was blocked on Tuesday by the United States, which complained that it "failed to address the root cause" -- the Palestinian rockets.
Meanwhile, the head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard has disclosed his country has given fighters in Gaza the ability to produce longer-range missiles on their own, without direct shipments. The comments, by Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency, offer some of the clearest insights on Iran's weapons support for Hamas.
Previously, Iran denied it directly supplied Hamas with the Fajr-5 rockets being fired at Israel in recent days.
NBC's Lawahez Jabari, Ian Johnston and Andy Eckardt, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Israeli brutality is breathtaking ... and consistent. The only karma they have left is bad karma. The tribe never learns ... the arc of history is long ... and paybacks are always a real bitch.
Israel has every right to defend itself with any means at their disposal, and if necessary US military participation, only as a last resort. I truly hope that the cease-fire holds and maybe some sort of meaningful dialogue/solutions can be reached to enable both Israel and the Palestinians to live in relative peace. Both sides have to give something to get something. Israel has the Right To Exist and the Palestinians Have a Right to their own State, otherwise its a continuous cycle of hate, death, and destruction.
What are the odds that Hamas breaks the cease fire within 24 hrs.? How about 1 week? How long does it take for a rocket to go from Iran to Gaza? How many are in the supply line now? Will the Egyptians try to stop the rockets from entering Gaza? With out an answer to those questions the cease fire is a joke.
I'm sorry they left you out of the loop. I'll let them know that you are against it.
About the only people on the planet earth who weren't against a ground attack by Israel were the right wing crazies in the United States. How did we get stuck with these people?
Two minutes, two minutes.....rockets down, please. And no murdering the people next to you....
amazing how the egotistical leaders/governments of the world are able to get away with murdering innocent people. WAKE UP people of earth, we CAN become one world nation. ONE world movement giving harmony to each and everyone of us. Wouldn't it be great?
No it wouldn't. The United States does not need to be included as a nation with the likes of Iran, NK, Pakistan, and any other uncivilized countries of the world. Countries need to stand up on their own and be civilized and support their citizens on their own.
There is your answer Andrew. I think the first step to world peace is to find out what is wrong with people like creynolds. Is it a genetic defect or what? Has evolution left them behind? Will they catch up over the next couple hundred years or next thousand years? We need to get our best scientific minds working on this.
How many time have we seen this 9:00 a cease fire, 9:10 someone gets their pants or panites in a ruffle 9:15 kabooom.
Hillary breaks off her Far East shopping tour to attend the Mideast cease fire ceremony---overseen by Egypt, while Obama is busy pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey.
For all you who voted for this approach to leadership, I bet you are just busting with pride!!
YES YES YES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We dodged a bullet on November 6th.
Wrong Jim---you got the bullet right between the eyes....
What a joke ...
Morsi is sitting there thinking ... "Yeah, I could rape her then stone her to death before lunch without breaking a sweat ..."
You're a real class act, Pray Hard.
It is MORE of a HOLD CEASE FIRE. Next time they BOTH ISRAEL and PALESTINE want ATTENTION from the WORLD the missiles will fly again. Then the POLITICIANS can FLY in and hand these good for nothing 2 NATIONS MORE WADS OF CASH to shut up. When are we going to STOP being SUCKERS to this GAME they are playing the WORLD. 70 YEARS plus it has been going on.
Does any POLITICIAN NOT see that they are playing the WORLD with this CRY BABY STUFF !!!!
Hillary, HOW MUCH DID IT COST THE U.S. To pay off the ISRAELI'S and PALISTINE?????? We need to STOP!!!
Off your medication again?
I find it ironic that a nation borne out of a genocide faces a problem that currently seems to be only solveable by creating one of their own with the palestinians.
more than 140 Palestinians killed, and five Israelis.
Who exactly are the terrorists over there? I'm sorry but I'm getting sick of hearing about how Arab dislike of Jews in the middle east is all based on antisemitism and has nothing to do with the actions of Israel, as an American I was raised to support the Jews and feel a connection and bond to them for a variety of reasons, Jesus being a Jew a notable one, but they can't just keep killing all their neighbors all the time, it just isn't right. No matter what they went thought they can't murder the rest of the world because of it.
The WORLD should let BOTH of them go "BOOM" next time.
First, why should the innocent people in Egypt die? What do you have against little kids growing up there? That's just ignorant thinking, obviously a Red State mentality.
They cannot stop and won't stop!! Until the Lord Jesus Christ returns, for you religious Christians!! So just continue to pray for the peace for Jerusalem, not Israel, like it is written. Remember God called Israel a "backsliding heifer." Just my thoughts!!
Not everyone believes in your God.
I heard through a very reputable source that Hillary threatened to give each leader a nude lap dance if they didn't agree to a truce. Wow, how quickly she gets things done.
I heard that ann romney was going to come over and serve them tuna fish in the basement.
Hmmm, Ann Romney or Hillary. Hillary would scare many animals.
ann would scare the tuna fish.
youd agree to a truce too if Israel was flattening your cities a block at a time, and when the jews invade a country(which they were going to do) its hard as hell to get them to leave,even after a truce.
Does anyone ever consider that Israel would as bad as the other countries in the region if they had not been forced from the area and exposed to Western ideals and culture?
Religious psychotics and political progressives both demand what they didn't earn.
The best definition of a conservative I've heard yet...
When Greater Syria was divided among the Great Apes, the Chimpanzee, the Bonobo, the Gorilla and the Orangutan all got their own nation, but the Gibbon was a Lesser Ape, and so it got nothing.
What kind of monkey are you?
wrong it got mississippi, and texas.
I'm the sort of humanoid that can spell "average".
The other spelling was taken, but it's nice to know you can spell, seeing as how you can do that, read this: THE BLUE STATES WON THE WAR AGAIN :) Guess you guys are losers in the history books for good, mabie you might want to think on the fact that possibly your opinions are wrong. Sorry, maybe....
Mississippi and Texas are adjacent states on your map.
Play the CD "Kind of Blue", do some hard drugs, wait for the economy to sail away to distant shores.
Sounds like a line in a bad country song, but really, is there any other kind?
Miles Davis and John Coltrane, white boy.
Didn't they both do a rap album with biggie and tupac?
In your world, yes.
Unless I'm mistaken in the real world most rap albums sample the works of older -and usually greater- artists, yes?
thats cause rap artists never had an original thought.
Let the conspiracy theories begin - all orchestrated to raise Hillary's credibility for 2016 - the PM of Egypt stated before she got there this would be over by Tuesday - problem is Hamas will not sit still and this will blow up in the next 4 years - and for those critical of Isreal's minor casulaties imagine how bad they would be if they didn't stop the hundreds of missles coming in - just because you don't have casualties doesn't mean they are the bad guys
Look at Mrs. Clinton's body language, and Mr. Morsi's expression. Whatever it takes, good for everyone.
"This is a critical moment for the region".
How many "critical" moments have there been for the region over the centuries???
Don't make me laugh!!
Hillary looks just terrible! The cease fire was agreed to because of the leader in Eygpt stepped forward to stop the palestines from futher bombing Israel(which they have done for years). Of course Eygpt wants to keep us close because they like all of our tax money to keep coming their way. They had to wait for Hillary to arrive for the photo op..........then it looks like Obama had something to do with the cease fire. All those middle eastern countries have been fighting for over 2000 years......it will never stop.(Cease fire for only 2 months then back to the same old stuff.
Obama does have something to do with the cease fire, and so does Hillary, who I will be voting for in the next election by the way, because they are running America, just like the decent Americans living here want.
WOW Average Guy are you ever delusional! Anyone who voted for Obot ISN'T American! They're either illegal aliens or Un-American! When you agree to amend the Constitution or let Govt own anything, then you have lost the idea of what America is! Please move to France!
Hey Average,
The MIDDLE CLASS voted in favor of Romney by almost 10% over Obama!!
You lose........
Yea, you guys who didn't vote for Obama are real inelegant people, who would vote for a guy who was a good father, good husband, spent his whole life in the service of his community and country and through hard work and education became the President of The USA. Better to vote for a Mormon who's dad was a child molester and bigamist with multiple young wives because nothing says good old fashion American Christan values like the rape of kids.
Most uneducated people that can't even spell a simple word like intelligent voted for Obama.
This is such crap!
Hamas fires countless missiles into Israel...
Israel gears up to distribute a beat down...
US calls for truce!
Hamas gears up again, fires coutless missiles into Israel...
Israel gears up to distribute a beat down...
US calls for truce!
Hamas gears up again, fires coutless missiles into Israel...
RINSE & REPEAT!
"Can't we all just get along?"
They called for truce just to get that ugly US woman out of their country!
There is a hilarious report from The Onion on YouTube about the deployment of Hillary Clinton.
Let them all kill each other!
No moral equivalence between the Villagers and the Monster.
I think someone needs a pre-Thanksgiving hug...
The Muslim Brotherhood has less respect for women than they have for the plummeting dollar, but they'll abuse both for as long as they can.