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<\/p>\nWASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Israel and Hamas halted an 11-day military conflict on Thursday night after both sides accepted a ceasefire brokered by Egypt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The move followed growing pressure from President Joe Biden’s administration and others foreign leaders to de-escalate the conflict\u00a0\u2013\u00a0which wrought far\u00a0more devastation in Gaza than Israel and killed significantly more\u00a0Palestinians.\u00a0Hamas fired\u00a0rockets indiscriminately into civilian areas in Israel while Israel\u00a0pounded Gaza with airstrikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Israel described the agreement as\u00a0“mutual and unconditional.”\u00a0Biden hailed the truce and commended Netanyahu after the Israeli leader confirmed ithe cease-fire by phone Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
The latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the worst outbreak of violence in the Mideast since 2014.<\/p>\n
At least\u00a0230 Palestinians have been\u00a0killed, including 64 children and 38 women, since the fighting began.\u00a0Another 1,620 people have been wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not break the numbers down into fighters and civilians.<\/p>\n
In Israel, 12 people, including a 5-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl and a soldier, have been killed.<\/p>\n
In addition, 58,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes during the conflict, while 18 hospital and clinics and a health facility were destroyed, according to the World Health Organization. The central COVID-19 testing lab in Gaza City was almost completely destroyed.<\/p>\n
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After 11 days of airstrikes targeting Hamas militants,\u00a0Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a case-fire Thursday brokered by Egypt, bringing an apparent end to its military operation in the Gaza Strip. (Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS)<\/span><\/p>\n In brief remarks\u00a0Thursday, Biden said the deal opened an\u00a0opportunity to seek a broader peace agreement amid the parties.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I believe the Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live\u00a0safely and securely and to enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity and democracy,” he said.\u00a0“My administration will continue our quiet, relentless diplomacy toward that end. I believe we have a genuine opportunity to make progress and I’m committed to working for it.”<\/p>\n WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 20: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the conflict in the Middle East from Cross- Hall of the White House on May 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. Israel and Hamas announced that they would agree to a cease-fire, which will take into effect on Friday, following days of fighting that claimed more than 200 lives. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker, Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n Biden extended his condolences to families of victims \u2013 Israelis and Palestinians. “These hostilities have resulted in the tragic deaths of so many civilians,” he said.<\/p>\n As the fighting escalated,\u00a0Biden faced increasing pressure from Democrats to intervene more forcefully to stop Israel’s onslaught of airstrikes. On Wednesday, he called for a “significant de-escalation” from Netanyahu, but Israel continued\u00a0its operation.<\/p>\n Recounting his Thursday phone call with Netanyahu\u00a0\u2013 his sixth in recent days\u00a0\u2013 Biden said he\u00a0reiterated the U.S.’s\u00a0“full support” of Israel to defend itself against Hamas. He also vowed the U.S. will help replenish Israel’s sophisticated Iron Dome missile defense system, which limited casualties in Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n Biden said the U.S. took part in “intensive\u00a0high-level discussions, hour-by-hour, literally”\u00a0with Egypt and other intermediaries\u00a0to avoid a prolonged conflict. He credited Egyptian President\u00a0Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi\u00a0for his role in brokering the deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0fighting began when\u00a0Hamas militant groups fired rockets toward Jerusalem following days of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in Jerusalem\u00a0near the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims.<\/p>\n Palestinians were protesting an\u00a0effort by Jewish settlers to evict Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem.\u00a0<\/p>\n An Israeli border police officer confronts a Palestinian man during protests in east Jerusalem on May 18, 2021. (Photo: Emmanuel Dunand\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n Hamas, which controls Gaza, fired thousands of rockets at civilian targets in Israel, sending Israelis scrambling to bomb shelters. The\u00a0vast majority Hamas’ rockets\u00a0 were intercepted by the\u00a0Dome missile defense system.\u00a0<\/p>\n Israel responded with its own fusillade of missiles aimed at degrading Hamas’ military capability and killing its leaders. Gaza is home to approximately two million Palestinians.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hostilities between Israel and Palestine remain\u00a0high and go back\u00a0decades.<\/p>\n Even as a cease-fire was reached, Israel’s Defense Forces said\u00a0sirens alerting Israeli residents of Hamas rocket fire were sounding in the south of the country.<\/p>\n Taher Nounou, a Hamas official, confirmed the deal:\u00a0\u201cThe Palestinian resistance will commit itself to this deal as long as the occupation is committed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Biden vowed “rapid humanitarian assistance” through the United Nations to the people of Gaza, making it clear it would be made through partnership with Palestinian authorities, not Hamas.<\/p>\n Both sides will be on edge as the truce goes into effect, and with tensions still high, some worry it may not hold. Meanwhile, the United Nations and other relief organizations will launch a massive relief and reconstruction effort in Gaza, which bore the brunt of the casualties and infrastructural damage.<\/p>\nBiden sees ‘genuine opportunity’ for progress toward peace<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nHow the conflict started<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nWhat’s\u00a0next?<\/h2>\n