Live: Israel and Hamas claim victory as fragile ceasefire holds
Live Updates
The UN says the recent hostilities have led to around 91,000 people becoming internally displaced in Gaza.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the numbers included 66,000 people seeking protection in 58 United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools across the besieged enclave and more than 25,000 staying with host families.
Lebanon's Hezbollah movement hailed a "historic victory" for Palestinians after a ceasefire took effect following 11 days of fighting.
"Hezbollah congratulates the heroic Palestinian people and its valiant resistance on the historic victory achieved... against the Zionist (Israel) enemy," the group said in a statement.
German airline Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and Swiss aim to resume flights to Tel Aviv on Sunday, Lufthansa said. Lufthansa had suspended its flights on 13 May.
The Palestinian ministry of health on Thursday received three trucks of medicines, food and humanitarian provided by Morocco via the Hashemite Charity Authority.
The delivery was the second batch of aid from the kingdom, following the first delivery on Wednesday, entering the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila thanked the king of Morocco, his government and the country's people for their support, as well as Jordan and the charity for bringing home the aid.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, on Friday welcomed the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and urged both sides to build on it.
"I urge both sides to consolidate it and stabilise the situation in the long term. Only a political solution will bring lasting peace and security to all," von der Leyen tweeted.
A senior Hamas figure claimed victory in the conflict with Israel on Friday in a speech to thousands of people celebrating in Gaza City after a ceasefire came into place.
"This is the euphoria of victory," said Khalil al-Hayya, the second most senior member of Hamas's political bureau in the besieged Gaza Strip. He also promised to reconstruct homes destroyed by Israeli air strikes.
Meanwhile, another Hamas official told Reuters that Israel must end its violations in Jerusalem and address damage from the bombardment of Gaza following the ceasefire, warning the group still had its "hands on the trigger".
"It is true the battle ends today but [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the whole world should know that our hands are on the trigger and we will continue to grow the capabilities of this resistance," said Ezzat El-Reshiq, a member of the Hamas political bureau.
He told Reuters in Doha that the movement's demands also include protecting Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and ending the eviction of several Palestinians from their home in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah, which Reshiq described as "a red line".
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi in a phone call on Thursday that he plans to travel to the Middle East in the coming days to meet with his Israeli, Palestinian and regional counterparts, the State Department said in a statement.
United Nations
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that both Israeli and Palestinian leaders hold responsibility to not only restore calm, but address the root issues in the conflict.
“Gaza is an integral part of the future Palestinian state and no effort should be spared to bring about real national reconciliation that ends the division," Guterres said.
A group of experts with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) said on Tuesday that after securing a ceasefire, the international community must then work to end Israel's occupation of Palestine.
United States
US President Joe Biden on Thursday evening commended both Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the ceasefire with Hamas, while reiterating that Washington "fully supports Israel's right to defend itself" against Hamas rocket attacks.
"We remain committed to work with the United Nations and other international stakeholders to provide rapid humanitarian assistance and to marshal international support for the people in Gaza and in the Gaza reconstruction efforts," he said.
"I believe the Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live safely and securely and enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity and democracy."
Still while condemning Hamas for its rocket attacks on Israel, the US president did not mention that Israel had killed at least 232 Palestinians, including at least 65 children.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that now that a ceasefire has taken effect, "we must turn our focus toward making more tangible progress toward a durable peace".
Egypt
Egypt's Sisi thanked Biden for his role in making the ceasefire in Gaza succeed, and said that he and the US president both saw the urgency of managing the conflict between all parties with diplomacy.
"With utter happiness I have received a phone call from President Biden in which we have exchanged visions around reaching a formula that would calm the current conflict between Israel and Gaza, our vision was in tune about managing the conflict between all parties with diplomacy."
United Kingdom
UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab welcomed the news of the ceasefire, saying that both sides "must work to make the ceasefire durable and end the unacceptable cycle of violence and loss of civilian life".
"UK continues to support efforts to bring about peace," Raab said.
In a series of tweets early on Friday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi thanked his US counterpart Joe Biden for his role in making the ceasefire in Gaza succeed.
Israel on Thursday said it had accepted Egypt's proposal for a "mutual" ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, after several days of mounting international pressure, and it went into effect at 2am local time.
Sisi said he and President Biden both saw the urgency of managing the conflict between all parties with diplomacy.
Celebratory gunfire and fireworks erupted in Gaza on Friday after a ceasefire agreed between Israel and Hamas went into effect.
Mosques used their loudspeakers to broadcast celebratory chants as the wartorn enclave hailed the apparent end to some of the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in a decade.
Watch MEE's live stream of the celebrations here.
US President Joe Biden on Thursday evening commended both Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the ceasefire with Hamas, while reiterating that Washington "fully supports Israel's right to defend itself" against Hamas rocket attacks.
In a speech delivered at the White House, Biden condemned Hamas for taking the lives of innocent Israelis but failed to mention that Israeli air strikes had killed at least 232 Palestinians, including 65 children and 39 women, while also destroying residential buildings and media offices.
"These hostilities have resulted in the tragic deaths of so many civilians, including children, and I send my sincere condolences to all the families, Israeli and Palestinian, who have lost loved ones," Biden said.
Biden added that the US is committed to providing humanitarian assistance and support for reconstruction efforts in Gaza, but would only work with the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas.
Despite the ceasefire announcement, Palestinians in the occupied territories remain sceptical that the calm would spill over into Jerusalem, particularly with the Sheikh Jarrah residents still at risk of imminent eviction.
Hamza Qattina, a lawyer from Jerusalem, said in an interview with Middle East Eye that the Gaza truce will bring about a “disguised and temporary calm” in Jerusalem.
“This mask will disappear shortly after the end of the war and the occupation will return to its violations."
He explained that in Sheikh Jarrah the court decisions to evict some of its Palestinian residents have not been annulled.
“Instead, occupation forces have set up barricades around it and besieged its people even more. They are trying to expel the families making the least noise possible,” he added.
Qattina predicts that Israel will de-escalate the tensions in Jerusalem for a few weeks, “so that everyone thinks they are not the ones causing tensions,” but then will restart the violations.
“There is no guarantee that prevents the occupation or deters it to stop its violations in Jerusalem,” he said.
Meanwhule, Hatem Abdel-Qader, member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council and Council of Islamic Endowments, commenting on the ceasefire announcement, said that “Jerusalem will remain the compass and heart of events regardless of whether the aggression on the Gaza Strip ends or continues.”
He explained that the recent developments in Gaza have created a new awareness regarding the Palestinian struggle generally, and Jerusalem’s in particular.
“The battle in Jerusalem is still ongoing and will continue until Israel ends the occupation. For the occupation, Jerusalem is at the forefront of its attack on Palestinian national aspiration and it’s undergoing a fierce open war against all components of the city,” he told MEE.
Read more here.
A senior Israeli official has pushed back on a claim made by Hamas that it received "guarantees" that "Israeli aggression" would stop at al-Aqsa Mosque and in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
The official said the claims were false, according to Barak Ravid, a contributing correspondent at the Axios news site.
A senior Hamas official told the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen network that the Palestinian group had received "guarantees that Israeli aggression at Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah will stop".
Osama Hamdan did not elaborate on what those guarantees were or how they would be implemented.
Israel and Hamas will cease fire across the Gaza Strip border as of 2 am local on Friday (23:00 GMT), a Hamas official and Israeli media said.
A Hamas official told the Reuters news agency that the ceasefire would be "mutual and simultaneous".
Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet had approved the truce, on the basis of what one official was quoted as calling "quiet in exchange for quiet".
Israeli cabinet spokesmen had no immediate comment.
The report comes after the Israeli government formally told the Egyptian mediator in indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas that it plans to halt operations, according to Al Jazeera.
