Tidak lama setelah gencatan senjata mulai berlaku pada pukul 9:00 malam waktu setempat, sejumlah orang Palestina turun ke jalan di Gaza untuk merayakan, melepaskan tembakan ke udara dan membunyikan klakson mobil. Suara pesawat tak berawak Israel masih terdengar di udara.
Berbicara pada konferensi pers bersama di Kairo sebelumnya, Menteri Luar Negeri Amerika, Hillary Clinton, dan Menteri Luar Negeri Mesir, Mohammed Kamel Amr, mengumumkan bahwa persetujuan gencatan senjata telah tercapai.
"Amerika Serikat menyambut gembira persetujuan gencatan senjata hari ini. Di hari-hari mendatang, Amerika Serikat akan bekerja sama dengan mitra-mitra di kawasan untuk mengkonsolidasikan kemajuan ini," kata Clinton.
Sementara gencatan senjata mulai diberlakukan, Perdana Menteri Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, mengindikasikan bahwa jika persetujuan yang ditengahi Mesir itu sampai gagal, maka Israel akan mempertimbangkan "aksi militer yang lebih keras" terhadap wilayah Palestina.
Tapi tidak lama sebelumnya, kantor Netanyahu mengeluarkan sebuah statement yang mengatakan bahwa ia siap berdamai.
"Beberapa saat lalu, Perdana Menteri Benjamin Netanyahu berbicara dengan Presiden Barack Obama dan menyetujui rekomendasinya untuk menyepakati usul gencatan senjata yang diajukan Mesir, sehingga membuka kemungkinan bagi stabilisasi situasi dan ketenangan," kata kantor Netanyahu dalam sebuah statement.
Obama memuji Netanyahu.
"Presiden memuji Perdana Menteri Netanyahu yang telah menyetujui usul gencatan senjata Mesir, sebagaimana direkomendasikan, tapi juga menegaskan kembali bahwa Israel mempunyai hak untuk membela diri," kata Gedung Putih.
Berdasarkan persetujuan gencatan senjata itu, Hamas menerima jaminan bahwa Israel akan berhenti mengasasinasi pemimpin-pemimpin Hamas dan blokade atas Gaza akan dilonggarkan.
Di pihaknya Hamas setuju menghentikan semua tembakan rudal ke Israel dari Gaza.
Persetujuan itu tercapai setelah sehari berlangsung kegiatan diplomatik - dipimpin oleh Clinton dan Sekjen PBB, Ban Ki-moon, dan sempat diwarnai dengan kekerasan lintas perbatasan lagi antara Israel dan militan di Gaza.
Harapan bagi gencatan senjata sempat redup hanya beberapa jam sebelumnya ketika sebuah bom menyerang sebuah bis di Tel Aviv, melukai 17 orang dan menebar kepanikan.
Ledakan itu terjadi sangat dekat dengan Kementerian Pertahanan Israel dan segera dikecam oleh jurubicara Netanyahu di Twitter: "Ini adalah serangan teroris".
Segera setelah ledakan bis itu, Israel melancarkan serangan udara lagi terhadap kota Gaza, menewaskan enam orang Palestina .
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Photo: Israeli police survey the scene after an explosion on a bus in Tel Aviv, November 21, 2012. The explosion struck in the heart of Tel Aviv, wounding at least 10 people in what officials said was a terrorist attack. (Reuters: Nir Elias) -
Photo: A destroyed apartment in a building that was hit by a rocket, fired from Gaza, in the city of Rishon Letzion, near Tel Aviv, on November 20, 2012. Read the story (AFP: Jonathan Nackstrand) -
Photo: Palestinian families are evacuated from their homes following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on November 20, 2012. Read the story (AFP: Mahmud Hams) -
Photo: Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a blaze after an Israeli air strike on the Islamic National Bank building in Gaza City on November 20, 2012. Israeli leaders discussed an Egyptian plan for a truce with Gaza's ruling Hamas, reports said, before a mission by the UN chief to Jerusalem and as the toll from Israeli raids on Gaza rose over 100. (AFP: Majdi Fathi) -
Photo: Palestinian civilians watch as firefighters extinguish fire from a car after it was hit by an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahia, on November 19, 2012. -
Photo: Palestinian firefighters extinguish a blaze following an Israeli air strike on the Gaza City tower housing Palestinian and international media, November 19, 2012. Read the story (AFP: Mahmud Hams) -
Photo: Palestinians evacuate a wounded man after an Israeli air strike which is reported to have hit a building housing international media offices in Gaza City on November 19, 2012. (Reuters: Suhaib Salem ) -
Photo: Palestinians point to where they believe children are trapped following an Israeli air strike on their house in Gaza City on November 18, 2012. Read the story (AFP: Marco Longari) -
Photo: (AFP: Marco Longari) -
Photo: Palestinians search for survivors in the rubble of a house destroyed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on November 18, 2012. (Reuters: Suhaib Salem) -
Photo: A Palestinian student from Birzeit University pushes a burning tyre in the West Bank town of Betunia during clashes with Israeli soldiers for the second consecutive day as they protest against the ongoing Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip on November 18, 2012. Read the story (AFP: Abbas Momani) -
Photo: An Israeli woman and her children take cover as sirens wail in Tel Aviv, November 17, 2012. Air raid sirens sounded in Israel's largest city for a third straight day after it was targeted by Hamas missiles fired from the Gaza strip. (AFP: Oren Ziv) -
Photo: Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike on an office of Hamas television channel Al-Aqsa in Gaza City on November 18, 2012. An Israeli air strike hit a Gaza City media building on November 18, injuring at least six journalists, as a separate raid in northern Gaza killed two people, Palestinian medical sources said. (AFP: Mohammed Abed) -
Photo: Israeli children look at the Israeli military's Iron Dome defence missile system, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells, deployed in Gush Dan, the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, November 17, 2012. (AFP: Roni Schutzer) -
Photo: Palestinians inspect the destroyed office building of Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya in Gaza City on November 17, 2012. (AFP: Mahmud Hams) -
Photo: Israeli soldiers prepare armoured personnel carriers near the border with Gaza on November 16. (Reuters: Ronen Zvulun) -
Photo: Palestinians gather their belongings as they inspect damages following Israeli air strikes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, November 16, 2012. Israeli officials said the Jewish state was preparing to launch its first ground offensive in four years into the Gaza Strip and the army started calling up reservists. (AFP: Said Khatib) -
Photo: A picture taken from the southern Israeli-Gaza border shows a rocket being launched from the Gaza strip into Israel, November 16, 2012. Israeli warplanes carried out multiple new air strikes on the Palestinian territory, including several hits on Gaza City, on the third day of an intensive campaign which the military has said is aimed at stamping out rocket fire on southern Israel. (AFP: Jack Guez) -
Photo: Palestinian Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Ismail Haniyeh (left) and Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil (right) visit a person who was wounded in an Israeli air strike on November 16, 2012 at the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. (AFP: Mahmud Hams/Pool) -
Photo: Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a fire after an Israeli air strike on the building of Hamas' Ministry of Interior in Gaza City, November 16, 2012. (Reuters: Mohammed Salem) -
Photo: Smoke rises from Israeli rocket attacks on the interior ministry building in Gaza City on November 16, 2012. (AFP: Majdi Fathi) -
Photo: A man takes cover after a rocket attack from Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on the southern Israeli city of Beersheva on November 15, 2012. (AFP) -
Photo: Israeli soldiers take cover as an air raid siren warns of incoming rockets before the funeral of Aaron Smadja, one of the three Israelis killed by a rocket fired from Gaza, at a cemetery in the southern city of Kiryat Malachi, November 15, 2012. (Reuters: Ronen Zvulun) -
Photo: Israelis sit inside a sewage pipe being used as a shelter during a rocket alert in the southern community of Nitzan, near Ashdod, November 15, 2012. (Reuters: Nir Elias) -
Photo: Palestinians extinguish a fire after Israeli air strikes targeted an electricity generator that fed the house of Hamas' prime minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City, November 15, 2012. (Reuters: Majdi Fathi ) -
Photo: Jihad al-Masharawi, a Palestinian employee of BBC Arabic in Gaza, carries the body of his 11-month-old son Omar, who according to hospital officials was killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City November 15, 2012. (Reuters: Mohammed Salem ) -
Photo: A picture taken from the southern Israeli town of Sderot shows smoke billowing from a spot targeted by an Israeli air strike inside the Gaza strip on November 15, 2012. The UN Security Council held a late night emergency meeting on escalating tensions between Israel and Gaza after Israel carried out more than 20 air strikes and sea artillery attacks on the Palestinian territory, killing the military commander for Hamas, which controls the territory. (AFP: Jack Guez) -
Photo: Palestinians help extinguish the fire after an Israeli air strike on the car of Hamas's top commander in Gaza City November 14, 2012. Ahmed Al-Jaabari, Hamas's military chief, was killed when his car was hit by the air strike. (Reuters) -
Photo: A man carries a wounded Palestinian woman into a hospital after Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, November 14, 2012. Israel launched a major offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza, killing the military commander of Hamas in an air strike and threatening an invasion of the enclave that the Islamist group vowed would "open the gates of hell". (Reuters: Saleh Salem) -
Photo: Israelis take cover as a siren sounds warning of incoming rockets in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi, November 15, 2012. A Hamas rocket killed three Israelis north of the Gaza Strip as the military showdown lurched closer to all-out war. (Reuters: Nir Elias) -
Photo: A rocket is launched from the Gaza strip into Israel on November 15, 2012. Rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel amid a vast Israeli operation against Gaza militants which began on November 14 with the killing of a top Hamas chief along with ten other Palestinians. (AFP: Jack Guez) -
Photo: An Israeli police sapper clears the remains of a rocket that was fired from the Gaza Strip and exploded in the southern Israeli town on Netivot on November 12, 2012. (AFP: Menahem Kahana) -
Photo: Israeli soldiers watch as an Iron Dome launcher fires an interceptor rocket near the southern city of Beersheba November 15, 2012. Hamas fired dozens of rockets into southern Israel on Thursday, killing three people, and Israel launched numerous air strikes across the Gaza Strip, threatening a wider offensive to halt repeated Palestinian salvoes. (Reuters: Baz Ratner) -
Photo: Palestinians carry the body of Ahmed Al-Jaabari, top commander of Hamas armed wing Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam, during his funeral in Gaza City November 15, 2012. Al-Jaabari was killed when his car was hit by an Israeli air strike on Wednesday. Israel exchanged the fiercest fire with Hamas in years after assassinating its military mastermind and threatening a wider offensive in the Gaza Strip to stem Palestinian rocket salvoes. (Reuters: Suhaib Salem)
Gallery: Conflict between Israel and Hamas