Israel Accepts Cease-Fire Proposal From Egypt

By Alan Greenblatt

Published July 14, 2014 at 4:27 PM CDT

Palestinians walk by the rubble of a house destroyed by an overnight Israeli missile strike on Monday.

Post updated: 2:15 a.m. ET Tuesday:

Israel's Security Cabinet has accepted Egypt's proposal for a cease-fire with Hamas in Gaza. Hamas has not yet formally accepted the proposal. According to The Associated Press: The plan calls for a cease-fire to begin within 12 hours of "unconditional acceptance" by the sides, followed by the opening of Gaza's border crossings and talks in Cairo within two days. Tuesday marks the eighth day of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Original post:

Egypt has proposed a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza that would take effect Tuesday.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry has called for Israel and Palestinians in Gaza to de-escalate their conflict by 9 a.m. (2 a.m. EDT). A full cease-fire would go into effect within 12 hours.

"The proposal, which was published on the eve of US Secretary of State John Kerry's expected visit to Cairo, states that Israel would end all 'hostilities' in the Gaza Strip from the land, air and sea and would refrain from launching a ground offensive that targets civilians," the Jerusalem Post reports.

Israel's Security Cabinet will meet Tuesday morning to discuss the proposal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "supports the Egyptian proposal for ceasefire in Gaza and will ask the cabinet [to] accept it," tweets Barak Ravid, diplomatic correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing an "Israeli official." But not all Israeli leaders are on board.

There is also no formal word whether Palestinians will agree. NPR's Emily Harris reports from Gaza that Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, went on television Monday night to say Hamas is not opposed to a cease-fire such as was reached in 2012, but Israel must agree to improve daily life for Palestinians by easing the restrictions on goods and people travelling in and out of Gaza.

If the two sides do agree to a cease-fire on Tuesday, it would be an unconditional truce. Within 48 hours of the cease-fire, both Israeli and Palestinian officials would travel to Cairo.

There, they would hold talks with neutral mediators, but not with each other.

Egypt mediated a truce between Israel and Hamas in 2012.