A house in Israel destroyed by a Hamas rocket.
Egyptian mediators announced that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire that would start at 8:00 AM on Tuesday local time, during which delegates from both parties would gather with mediators at Egypt to discuss their conditions for a conclusive end to the conflict.
"Hamas told Egypt a short while ago of its acceptance of a 72-hour period of calm," Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, told Reuters.
An Israeli official also told the BBC that "Israel will accept the draft of the Egyptian proposal for an unconditional ceasefire, without precondition and for 72 hours."
Bassam Salhi, a Palestinian delegate, said, "It's clear now that the interest of all parties is to have a ceasefire. It's going to be tough negotiations because Israel has demands too. We don't have any guarantees the siege will be removed."
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the Israeli military said that they "neutraliz[ed]" most of the tunnels that Hamas had been using for their attacks, which concludes the primary mission they had been working to achieve.
Both sides have taken a considerable number of casualties thus far in the four-week conflict. The death toll in Palestine rose up to 1,800, while 67 deaths have been reported in Israel. A Thai worker was also killed in Israel.
Even the U.S., who had been dedicated in its support for Israel, had been increasingly pressuring Israel to end the conflict, with President Obama repeatedly mentioning concern for the many Palestinian civilian lives that have been lost. U.S. spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that she was "appalled" by Israel's attack on Sunday.
Although there have been multiple announcements of a ceasefire previously, most of them lasted a several hours at best, and none lasted longer than one day.
