Update, 1:30 p.m.: Israeli officials confirmed that a long-term cease-fire deal in Gaza was in place on Tuesday. “Israel has once again accepted an Egyptian proposal for a complete cease-fire,” a senior Israeli official told the New York Times. “This cease-fire is unlimited in time.”
Original post: A Hamas spokesman says an agreement for a long-term cease-fire in Gaza has been reached via negotiations in Cairo. From Reuters:
Cairo’s initiative, Palestinians officials said, called for an indefinite halt to seven weeks of hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza’s blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt and a widening of the enclave’s fishing zone in the Mediterranean.
Under a second stage that would begin a month later, Israel and the Palestinians would discuss the construction of a Gaza sea port and an Israeli release of Hamas prisoners in the occupied West Bank, the officials said.
Support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dropped drastically as Gaza airstrikes and rocket attacks on Israel have continued, Haaretz reports. “Only 38 percent of Israelis are satisfied with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s performance as the Gaza fighting approaches its 50th day,” the paper writes; in mid-July, when Israeli troops invaded Gaza on the ground, Netanyahu’s approval number was 82 percent.
