Cease-Fire Reached in Israel-Gaza Conflict

[Content Note: War; violence.]

CNN is reporting that a cease-fire has been brokered following a bus bombing in Tel Aviv and intense negotiations facilitated by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy.
The cease-fire, announced Wednesday night in a joint news conference in Cairo with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, is scheduled to take effect at 9 p.m. (2 p.m. ET).

With more than an hour to go before the agreement formally took hold, rockets could be seen streaking from Gaza into the sky toward Israel. It was not immediately clear if Israel had suspended its military operations.

...No details of the cease-fire agreement were immediately available. Hamas had been asking for, among other things, an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza. Israeli officials said they were seeking a long-term solution ending the threat of rocket fire in southern Israel.

As recently as Wednesday afternoon, Hamas officials were calling for more strikes against Israel, while that country's military continued to press its campaign against suspected rocket-launching sites and what it described as "terrorist hideouts."

Eleven people had died as of Wednesday night in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run al-Aqsa television station, bringing the total death toll in the Palestinian territory to 142 in eight days of fighting.

Five people died in Israel, and scores more were wounded.
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