Palestinians celebrate ceasefire, Israelis show anger on the streets

Palestinians and Israelis held their fire late on Tuesday following an Egyptian mediation effort, bringing a relative calm to the Gaza frontier after the fiercest Israeli aggression on Gaza  since the 2014 war.

The two sides made clear the pause was an armed stand-off rather than a long-term accommodation.

Fighting died down at 1500 GMT and a Palestinian official briefed on the negotiations said Gaza factions ceased firing as part of a deal proposed by Egypt. 

Israeli officials confirmed Cairo had been involved in Tuesday's arrangement.

TRT World's Philip Owira reports.

Since Sunday, Israeli air strikes killed 14 Palestinians and destroyed several buildings used by Gaza's governing political party, Hamas.

Rocket attacks from Gaza sent residents of southern Israel to shelters, wounding dozens and killing a Palestinian labourer from the occupied West Bank.

Locals have welcomed the ceasefire, but aren't sure how long the "fragile" ceasefire will last. 

TRT World speaks with Gaza-based journalist Hind Al Khoudary for more.

A Hamas official said the violence erupted on Sunday when a group of its members were fired upon by a passing car belonging to Israel forces.

Hamas members gave chase and witnesses said during the chase Israeli aircrafts fired over 40 missiles on the Hamas vehicle.

Among the dead were Hamas commanders Nour Baraka and Mohammad Al-Qarra, medical officials said.

The exchanges that followed were the fiercest since the Gaza war in 2014, the third between Israel and Hamas in a decade as part of the wider Israel-Palestinian conflict. 

In that 50-day war, more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, most of them civilians, along with 66 Israeli soldiers and seven civilians in Israel.

'Taught enemy a harsh lesson'

The joint command of the Palestinian armed factions in Gaza said in a statement on Tuesday they would abide by a ceasefire "as long as the Zionist enemy does the same".

Hamas, which has governed the packed and impoverished coastal enclave since 2007, claimed victory. 

Spokesman Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said that they had "taught the enemy a harsh lesson and made it pay for its crimes".

Israeli security minister Yuval Steinitz said after a cabinet debate lasting several hours that he knew of no formal truce.

While many Palestinians celebrated in the streets, in Israel the response was mixed. 

Dozens of residents of bombarded southern villages blocked an Israeli traffic junction and burned tyres in protest at what they deemed a government capitulation.

According to Israel, more than 400 rockets were fired across the fenced border from Gaza.

Responding with dozens of air strikes, Israel hit dozens of buildings including the Hamas-run TV station, Al-Aqsa.

Simmering violence

Violence has simmered since Palestinians launched weekly border protests on March 30 to demand the easing of the blockade and the right to return to land lost in the 1948 war of Israel's founding. 

Israeli troops have killed more that 220 Palestinians during those confrontations, which have included border breaches.

Alarmed at the bloodshed, Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar have sought ways to improve conditions in the enclave.

Israel withdrew settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005 but maintains tight control of its land, air and sea borders.

The wider Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been stalled for several years.