Nov 21, 2012

Cease-fire in Gaza Conflict announced

Nick Tann 0 Comment World Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, Hillary Clinton, Israel, Palestine

UPDATE as of 12:42 p.m. EST: A cease-fire between Israel and Hamas has been announced for later this evening, Reuters reports.

The Israel-Hamas conflict entered in its eighth day of fighting after a bomb exploded Wednesday morning on a bus in Tel Aviv, prompting Israel to continue air strikes over Gaza. The hard-sought “calming down” from yesterday never reached an agreement as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seeks a diplomatic solution with leaders on both sides of the conflict.

Here’s the latest look into the Gaza conflict from AFP, Getty and Reuters photographers in the region. | NOTE: Some photos are graphic showing visual coverage of injury or death.

More Gaza conflict coverage from The Darkroom:

NOVEMBER 14 – 18: Airstrikes, unrest continue in conflict between Israel and Hamas for fifth day

: NOVEMBER 21: An Iron Dome launcher fires an interceptor rocket in the southern city of Ashdod, about an hour after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect. Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched 12 rockets into Israel during the hour after a ceasefire was announced between Israel and Islamist militants on Wednesday, an Israeli police spokesman said. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: A Palestinian gunman kisses his rifle as he celebrates what he says is a victory over Israel after an eight-day conflict in Gaza City. (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: An Israeli woman reacts as a siren warning of incoming rockets sounds in the southern city of Beersheba. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: During the last hour of hostilities, militants launch rockets from Gaza City as an Israeli bomb explodes on the horizon on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 21: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators stand next to candles during a protest against the Israeli offensive in Gaza in front of the United Nations Office in Geneva. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 21: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) and Egypt’s President Mohamed Mursi meet at the presidential palace in Cairo. (Egyptian Presidency/Handout/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: A Palestinian youth looks at Israeli troops during clashes in the West Bank city of Herbon. (Mussa Qawasma/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: Palestinian mourners pray over the bodies of five Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes during their funeral in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. (Eyad Al Baba/APA Images/Zuma Press/MCT)

: NOVEMBER 21: Israeli youths dance and sing to support troops on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 21: Israelis sit on a hill top and watch the bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 21: Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) operations in Gaza Robert Turner speaks with displaced Palestinians, who fled from their houses, at a U.N.-run school in Gaza City. At least 50 Gaza families living next to the front line with Israel had fled their homes by the eighth day of Israel’s air war but far more people will be uprooted if there is any ground invasion, the U.N. relief agency in the enclave said on Tuesday. (Ahmed Zakot/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon (rear L) at a hotel in Jerusalem. (U.N. Photo/Evan Schneider/Handout/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: A bus company worker looks at a damaged bus before towing it from the scene of an explosion in Tel Aviv. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: Israeli police officers stand around a damaged bus at the scene of an explosion in Tel Aviv. A bomb exploded on the bus in central Tel Aviv on Wednesday, wounding 15 people in what Israeli officials said was a terrorist attack that could complicate efforts to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: A man carries the body of nine-year-old Mohammed Ashour ahead of his funeral in the Gaza Strip. Ashour’s family said he was killed on Tuesday near his house by an Israeli air strike. (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (2nd R) after their meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Marko Djurica/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: A Palestinian shouts in front of what witnesses said are destroyed tunnels after an Israeli air strike in the border of southern Gaza Strip. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: A wounded woman is carried on a stretcher from the scene of an explosion in Tel Aviv. (Barak Pachter/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: The rubble of destroyed government offices is seen after what witnesses said was an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: Displaced Palestinian children sit outside a classroom after they fled from their home to a United Nations-run school in Gaza City. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: An injured man is evacuated by Israeli medics after a blast ripped through a bus near the defence ministry in Tel Aviv. At least 10 people were injured in an explosion on a bus, Israel’s emergency services said, in what an official said was ‘a terrorist attack.’ (Barak Pachter/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 21: Smoke and explosion are seen during Israeli airstrikes witnessed by a Reuter’s photographer in Gaza City. (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: Israeli soldiers take cover during a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: An activist wears a T-shirt with an image of revolutionary leader Che Guevara during a march towards the United Nations building in Managua. Palestinian residents in Nicaragua and pro-Palestinian activists protested against Israel’s military action in Gaza. (Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: An Israeli soldier gives the victory sign as mechanised infantry check their equipment in a forward staging area on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 21: An activist from the international anti-imperialist coordinating committee burns an effigy depicting U.S. President Barack Obama and Israel’s President Shimon Peres during a pro-Palestinian protest against Israel’s military action in Gaza in Kolkata. (Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 21: Pope Benedict XVIarrives for his weekly general audience at the Paul VI hall at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday voiced his support for diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza on the eighth day of the conflict and spoke of his concern at the escalating violence. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 21: Israeli tanks are stationed at an Israeli army deployment area near the Israel-Gaza Strip border with smoke trail in the background. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 21: An Israeli soldier prays next to an artillery gun on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: Blood leaks from under the door of the al-Shifa hospital morgue in Gaza City. Two cameramen from Hamas-owned Al-Aqsa TV were among six people killed in Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip, raising Tuesday’s death toll to 20, a Hamas spokesman said. (Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

: NOVEMBER 20: Members of the Palestinian community and Mexicans participate in a protest against Israeli strikes in Gaza at the Independence Angel square in Mexico City. (Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: A member of the Palestinian community in Chile paints a Palestinian flag on her face during a protest against Israel’s military operations in Gaza, at downtown Santiago. (Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton upon her arrival to their meeting in Jerusalem. The United States signalled on Tuesday that a Gaza truce could take days to achieve after Hamas, the Palestinian enclave’s ruling Islamist militants, backed away from an assurance that it and Israel would stop exchanging fire within hours.(Baz Ratner/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton deliver joint statements in Jerusalem. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: A hand is held aloft at the ‘New York Stands With Israel’ rally in support of Israel during the ongoing Gaza conflict, outside the Israeli consulate in New York. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: A militant rocket is launched towards Israel, hours before a proposed cease fire, on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: Parachute flares illuminate the Gaza Strip for an artillery barrage, hours before a proposed cease fire, on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: An Israeli emergency worker surveys the scene after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a building in Rishon Lezion, near Tel Aviv. A Hamas official said on Tuesday Egypt had brokered a Gaza ceasefire deal that would go into effect within hours, but a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said ‘we’re not there yet.’ (Nir Elias/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: Parachute flares illuminate the Gaza Strip for an artillery barrage, hours before a proposed cease fire, on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. Accorrding to reports, Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip have said that an Egyptian brokered ceasefire between Israel and Gaza militants is due to begin at midnight local time, but is unclear whether the Israelis have confirmed an agreement. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: Palestinian youths take cover during clashes with Israel troops in the West Bank city of Hebron. Two funeral processions for Palestinians killed during clashes with the Israeli army turned violent on Tuesday, underscoring tensions in the occupied West Bank sharply exacerbated by the Gaza conflict. Palestinian medics said the two men were killed by Israeli gunfire in separate protests earlier this week – one in the village of Nabi Saleh and the other in the city of Hebron. Israel’s military said its soldiers had shot and injured a man in Hebron on Monday after he approached them holding a fire bomb. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: Religious Jews play music for Israeli soldiers sitting on a tank, next to lines of artillery shells, at an Israeli army deployment area near the Israel-Gaza Strip border. A ceasefire to end almost a week of violence in and around the Gaza Strip is to be announced in Cairo, Hamas and Islamic Jihad sources told AFP. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: A private Israeli security guard sits on an armchair as he watches the fighting from a hill outside the northern Gaza Strip. A Hamas official said on Tuesday Egypt had brokered a Gaza ceasefire deal that would go into effect within hours, but a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said ‘we’re not there yet.’ (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: Rockets streaks are seen in the night sky after they are launched from the northern Gaza Strip towards Israel. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: Protesters hold placards as they burn a mock Israeli flag during a rally outside the Israeli embassy in Manila’s Makati financial district. About two dozen demonstrators in the Philippines gathered to protest against the Israeli-Gaza conflict that has resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people. (Cheryl Ravelo/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: Palestinians carry the bodies of two children, Suhaib (C) and Mohammed, and their father Fuad Hejazi during their funeral in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. The two children and their father were killed when an Israeli air strike in the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya crushed their home on Monday, the Hamas Health Ministry said. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: Smoke rises after what witnesses said was an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip. Talks between Israelis and Palestinians over a Gaza truce are continuing but the Egyptian mediators are still hopeful a deal can be reached later on Tuesday, an Egyptian official said. (Ali Hassan/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: Palestinian boys stand next to the destroyed house of Hejazi family after what Hamas Health Ministry said was an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip. Four members of the same Hejazi family — four-year-old twin boys and their parents — were killed in the Israeli air strike in Gaza on Monday, the Hamas Health Ministry said. Israel had no immediate comment on the attack, one of more than 80 bombings during the day in the Hamas-ruled territory, where Israel launched an aerial offensive on Wednesday it says is intended to quell rocket fire at its cities. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attends a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Israel. (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: A displaced Palestinian girl, who fled her family’s house, sits under a bench in a classroom as she stays with her family at a United Nations-run school in Gaza City. From the sandy expanses of the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian families are fleeing their homes destroyed by airstrikes, but refuse to blame the Hamas rocket crews who draw Israeli fire. (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: Palestinian gunmen ride a motorcycle as they drag the body of a man, who was suspected of working for Israel, in Gaza City. Palestinian gunmen shot dead six alleged collaborators in the Gaza Strip who ‘were caught red-handed,’ according to a security source quoted by the Hamas Aqsa radio on Tuesday. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: Palestinian gunmen ride motorcycles as they drag the body of a man, who was suspected of working for Israel, in Gaza City. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: Palestinians gather around a destroyed car after what witnesses said was hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. An Israeli air strike on two cars in the Gaza Strip killed six Palestinians on Tuesday, while two children died in an attack in the north of the territory, local residents and medics said. (Ali Hassan/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: An Israeli soldier jumps from a tank in a deployment area as the conflict between Palestine and Gaza enters its seventh day on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby (C) and Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (3rd L) touch the hand of a Palestinian boy, who according to Palestinian medics was wounded in an Israeli air strike, at a hospital in Gaza City. A delegation of nine Arab ministers led by Egypt’s Foreign Minister visited Gaza on Tuesday in a further signal of heightened Arab solidarity with the Palestinians. (Ahmed Zakot/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: A Palestinian girl stands next to a relative’s house after it was destroyed in what witnesses said was an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 20: An Israeli woman wears a trinket in the shape of an M16 rifle as she sits in a cafe close to Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip near Ashkelon, Israel. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: Masked Palestinian youths stand amidst tear gas smoke during clashes with Israeli security forces in the Jalama checkpoint near the West Bank city of Jenin. (Saif Dahlah/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: Aaron Hachmon reacts to the damage caused to his house after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Beersheba, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: Sapir Hachmon and her boyfriend Ron Vachnish react as they enter her room after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Beersheba, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: Israeli soldiers prepare tanks at an Israeli army deployment area near the Israel-Gaza Strip border for a potential ground operation in the Palestinian coastal enclave. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: A Palestinian man inspects a damaged building following overnight Israeli air strikes on the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis. (Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: An Israeli soldier evacuates a young girl from a site hit by a rocket launched by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip in the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva. (Danny Sasson/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: A Palestinian woman walks past a house destroyed during an Israeli airstrike. Israeli leaders discussed an Egyptian plan for a truce with Gaza’s ruling Hamas, reports said, before a mission by the UN chief to Jerusalem and as the toll from Israeli raids on Gaza rose over 100. (Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: A Palestinian carries a bag of salvaged items from a house destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City. Seven Palestinians were wounded in strikes on Gaza overnight, but no one was killed in the first night without fatalities since the Israeli air campaign began nearly a week ago. (Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: During a lull in militant rocket fire and sillouhetted against fighter jet vapour trails, a young boy plays on the roof of a bomb shelter and blows soap bubbles in Ashkelon, Israel. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: Israeli soldiers prepare weapons and vehicles in a deployment area as the conflict between Palestine and Gaza enters its seventh day on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: An Israeli soldier’s helmet sits on an artillery shell at dawn as the conflict between Palestine and Gaza enters its seventh day on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. Hamas militants and Israel are continuing talks aimed at a ceasefire as the death toll in Gaza reaches more than 100 and also three Israelis killed by rockets fired by Palestinian militants. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 20: Israeli soldiers inspect a belt of bullets of the machine gun of a tank at an Israeli army deployment area near the Israel-Gaza Strip border for a potential ground operation in the Palestinian coastal enclave. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 19: A Palestinian firefighter tries to extinguish a fire after an Israeli air strike, witnessed by a Reuters journalist, on a floor in a building that also houses international media offices in Gaza City. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 19: A member of the Popular Front of India (PFI) holds a pamphlet during a protest outside the Israeli embassy in New Delhi. Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza on Saturday, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s office, after Israel’s cabinet authorised the mobilisation of up to 75,000 reservists, preparing for a possible ground invasion. (Mansi Thapliyal/Reuters)

Egyptian-brokered Hamas-Israel ceasefire takes hold
Marwa Awad and Nidal al-Mughrabi | Reuters
3:49 p.m. EST, November 21, 2012

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) – Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip agreed on Wednesday to an Egyptian-sponsored ceasefire to halt an eight-day conflict that killed 162 Palestinians and five Israelis.

Both sides fought right up to 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) when hostilities were due to stop, with several explosions shaking Gaza City and rockets hitting the Israeli city of Beersheba.

Even after the deadline passed, a dozen rockets from Gaza landed in Israel, all in open areas, a police spokesman said.

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.

“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.”

Fifteen minutes later, wild celebratory gunfire echoed across the darkened streets of Gaza, which gradually filled with crowds waving Palestinian flags. Ululating women leaned out of windows and fireworks lit up the sky.

Hamas leaders welcomed the agreement, calling it a triumph for armed resistance, and thanking Egypt for its role.

Cease-fire in Gaza Conflict announced

More Gaza conflict coverage from The Darkroom:

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