Watch above: A ceasefire agreement will see an end to Hamas rocket attacks in exchange for Israel easing its blockade of Gaza. Stuart Greer has the details.
Palestinians celebrated in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank after Israel and Palestinian factions reached a long-term ceasefire agreement. But the truce certainly didn’t arrive peacefully.
Even as the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire went into effect, at 7:00 p.m. local time Tuesday, rockets were still firing from Gaza into Israeli territory. Two Israelis were killed in a mortar attack and five others were wounded.
At least six Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday, in the hours ahead of the ceasefire agreement being announced in Cairo, Haaretz reported.
READ MORE: Gaza conflict: Israel accepts Egyptian-brokered ceasefire to end war
In the 50 days since the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) began military operations against Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, at least 2,100 Palestinians were killed according to Palestinian officials. The United Nations said about three-fourths of the Palestinian deaths were civilian. Six Israeli civilians and 64 Israeli soldiers have died in the past seven weeks of conflict.
In agreeing to halt hostilities, Israel will end its airstrikes on targets in the Gaza Strip and all other military actions. Since July 8, when airstrikes began —an aggressive ground operation began on July 20 — the IDF and the Israeli Air Force have destroyed 5,200 targets in the densely populated Palestinian territory.
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad committed to stop firing rockets and mortars into Israel, of which there were some 3,600 that detonated in Israeli territory, Haaretz reported.
If the truce holds and hostilities don’t resume, all parties will meet again in one month to negotiate further agreements to bring about longer-lasting peace.
How will this deal benefit the people of Gaza?
Border crossings
In exchange for an end to rocket and mortar fire, Israel has agreed to ease some conditions of its blockade of the Gaza Strip, which went into effect after Hamas took control of the enclave in 2007.
WATCH: TV crew captures Hamas terrorists setting up rocket in civilian area
More border crossings into the Gaza Strip will open as a result of Tuesday’s agreement, Reuters reported, allowing much needed goods and humanitarian aid into the territory, as well as materials and equipment to help rebuild devastated communities.
USA Today reported an estimated 100,000 people, out of a population of 1.8 million people, are homeless as a result of 17,000 homes being destroyed or damaged.
The Israeli government committed to open the border crossings, while Egypt made separate agreement to reopen the Rafah crossing from the Sinai Peninsula, which the Egyptian government closed after ousting the former President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood — a forefather and ally of Hamas.
Under the blockade, the Israeli government limited what could pass through the border crossings to prevent materials from being used to build tunnels and other infrastructure to carry out attacks against Israel.
The IDF asserted the ground operation in the Gaza Strip aimed to take out Hamas’ network of underground tunnels, used to hide weapons and to infiltrate Israeli territory. The IDF declared that aspect of the operation successful on Aug. 4, after destroying more than 30 clandestine underground passageways.
READ MORE: Here’s why Israel says it wants to destroy Hamas tunnels
Expanding fishing boundaries
Israel has also agreed to allow Gazan fishermen to go further away from shore to fish, increasing the maritime boundary approximately 11 kilometres offshore. Previously fisherman were restricted to fishing within 5.5 kilometres of the coast.
Reuters reported that boundary could eventually expand further and reach the 22-kilometre territorial limit permitted by international law.
More access to farm land
Israel, provided the ceasefire agreement remains intact, will move back its security buffer zone inside the Gaza border.
Israel claimed the buffer was necessary to limit militants from launching rockets and mortars, but hindered civilian access to farm land.
According to Reuters, the buffer zone will shrink from 300 metres away from the border to 100 metres.
What is yet to be dealt with?
Travel infrastructure
While border crossing openings may allow more Gazans to come and go, Hamas also wants Israel to allow a seaport to be constructed and the Yasser Arafat International airport to be rebuilt, according to Reuters.
Handover of remains, prisoners
Israel wants the remains of IDF soldiers, and any personal belongings, killed during the conflict to be returned, Reuters reported.
At the same time the Palestinians aim to have hundreds of prisoners freed, including those who have been detained long-term and those who were imprisoned during the hunt for the killers of three kidnapped Israeli teens.
READ MORE: Hamas admits to kidnapping three Israeli teens, setting off Gaza war
With files from The Associated Press
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