Jerusalem: A cease-fire between Israel and Hamas took effect early Friday, hours after the two sides agreed to end more than 10 days of fighting that had claimed hundreds of lives.
The truce, mediated by Egypt, began at 2 a.m. in Israel as people on either side of the divide watched nervously to see whether it would hold.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday evening that his security cabinet had voted unanimously to accept the Egyptian proposal, and officials of Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, confirmed that it, too, had accepted.
Each side cautioned that its compliance could depend on the other’s actions.
President Biden, in a broadcast address from the White House, lamented “the tragic deaths of so many civilians, including children,” and lauded Israeli and Egyptian officials. Noting that he had spoken with Mr. Netanyahu six times during the crisis, he said, “I commend him for the decision to bring the current hostilities to a close in less than 11 days.”
He vowed to marshal international resources to rebuild Gaza, adding, “We will do this in full partnership with the Palestinian Authority — not Hamas, the Authority — in a manner that does not permit Hamas to restock its arsenal.”
The Palestinian Authority is a semiautonomous body that exercises partial jurisdiction in parts of the occupied territories. Hamas, which controls Gaza, and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel and others.
As morning dawned with no reported violations of the truce, both sides were beginning to take stock of the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian fighting in seven years. Since May 10, Hamas has fired rockets into Israel, and Israel has bombed targets in Gaza. Sirens sounded in Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip in the minutes after the Israeli announcement, indicating that militants were continuing to fire rockets as the cease-fire approached.
Diplomats from Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations have mediated intensively between Hamas and Israel, which do not talk to each other directly, amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.
The Israeli aerial and artillery campaign has killed more than 230 people in Gaza, many of them civilians, and badly damaged the impoverished territory’s infrastructure, including the fresh water and sewer systems, the electrical grid, hospitals, schools and roads. The primary target has been Hamas’s extensive network of tunnels for moving fighters and munitions, and Israel has also sought to kill Hamas leaders and fighters.
More than 4,000 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza since May 10, killing 12 people, mostly civilians.
Mr. Netanyahu met on Thursday with his security cabinet to review how far the military had gone in damaging Hamas, including destroying its network of tunnels and its arsenal of rockets and launchers. He and other Israeli officials had insisted that the bombardment of Gaza would continue as long as it took to safeguard Israeli security.