Long-term ceasefire takes effect in Gaza

A ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinians aimed at ending their seven-week conflict in Gaza went into effect yesterday and joyous Palestinians streamed into the streets of the battered enclave to celebrate. 

Minutes before the Egyptian-brokered truce began at 5pm, a rocket fired by Palestinian militants killed one person in an Israeli kibbutz, or collective farm, near the Gaza border, police said.

Palestinian and Egyptian officials said the deal calls for an indefinite halt to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza’s blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt and a widening of the territory’s fishing zone in the Mediterranean.