72-hour Gaza truce begins
August 1, 2014
The ceasefire, agreed following a diplomatic push from both the United States and the United Nations came into force at 8:00 am local time (0500 UTC) on Friday.
The agreement was announced simultaneously at UN headquarters in New York and in New Delhi, where US Secretary of State John Kerry has been meeting with officials from India's new government.
At a hastily called press conference, Kerry warned that while he was pleased that the parties to the conflict had agreed to the truce, the conflict was far from over.
"This is not a time for congratulations and joy, or anything except a serious determination, a focus, by everybody to try to figure out the road ahead," Kerry said shortly after the deal was struck. "This is a respite. It's a moment of opportunity, not an end; it's not a solution. It's the opportunity to find the solution."
Kerry said representatives from both Israel and the Palestinians, including Hamas, would meet as early as later on Friday to begin negotiations towards a more durable truce.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's recent trip to the Middle East as well as two days of "extremely active diplomacy at all levels" had been instrumental in convincing the two side to agree the 72-hour ceasefire.
Offensive operations to be halted
Under the terms of the truce, both sides agreed to end all offensive operations and conduct only defensive operations. For Israel, this means that troops on the ground in Gaza can continue to destroy tunnels used by Palestinian militants in operations against the Jewish state.
The news of the ceasefire came in the early hours of Friday, as the Palestinian death toll from Israel's more than three-week long offensive on the Gaza Strip climbed to more than 1,450, the vast majority of whom were civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. Around 60 Israelis have been killed, most of them soldiers.
The bloodshed continued in the hours leading up to the start of the truce. The Israeli Defense Forces said five more of their soldiers were killed by mortar fire early on Friday, while the AFP news agency cited a Gaza emergency services spokesman who said 14 more Palestinians had been killed by Israeli air and tank fire.
pfd/jm (AFP, AP, dpa)