A Palestinian man carries belongings salvaged from his ruined home in the village

of Khuza’a, once home to 10,000 people. Photograph: Oliver Weiken/EPA

A definitive end to the four-week conflict

in Gaza appeared possible on Tuesday morning as an

agreed 72-hour ceasefire

between Hamas andIsrael came into effect and the

Israeli military said it had withdrawn from the

Palestinian territory.

The suspension of hostilities came into force at 8am

on Tuesday and is due to be followed up with further

discussions in Egypt about ending the four-week war.

The Israeli military said it had withdrawn all forces from

Gaza by 8am. A volley of last-minute rockets was fired

by militants towards Israel.

The likelihood of Israel agreeing to a longer-term

ceasefire appeared to increase on Tuesday as Israeli

radio stations reported that ground forces had

Gaza crisis: Israel and Hamas begin 72-hour ceasefireHostilities suspended as of Tuesday morning, with Israel saying it

has finished destroying tunnels and withdrawn forces

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Jason Burke in Gaza, Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem, Patrick Kingsley in CairoThe Guardian, Tuesday 5 August 2014

completed their main Gaza war mission of destroying

cross-border tunnels. At least 32 of the underground

passages and dozens of access shafts had been

located and blown up, Israel Radio and Army Radio

said.

A member of the Hamas delegation in Cairo, Bassam

Salhi, said it was "clear now that the interest of all

parties is to have a ceasefire. It's going to be tough

negotiations because Israel has demands too." Mark

Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, said: "Israel

will honour the ceasefire and will be watching to see if

Hamas does too."

An hour into the ceasefire, no rockets had been fired

from Gaza and fisherman in the coastal territory

ventured into the sea.

Representatives of Palestinian factions had been in

Cairo since Sunday to agree a set of demands and a

possible end to hostilities. More than 1,800

Palestinians have died, health officials in Gaza say.

Israeli casualties include 64 soldiers and three civilians

killed by rocket fire.

The new proposal was communicated late on Monday

night to the Israelis, who accepted the ceasefire plan

around midnight. An Israeli official confirmed a

delegation would be heading to Cairo for talks.

Ziad al-Nakhala, deputy secretary general of

Palestinian Islamic Jihad, had earlier told the Guardian

that he believed a deal would be reached.

At least one key issue for Israel – of cross-border

tunnels that allow infiltration by militants – had not been

discussed, al-Nakhala said, but Egyptian officials

accepted the need to ease the siege of Gaza.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said

late on Monday that Washington strongly supported the

latest ceasefire proposal and urged "both parties to

respect it completely".

The Palestinian Authority's envoy to Egypt, Gamal

Shobky, who was also present at the talks in Cairo,

said "many people" in the Egyptian capital were

working to reach a ceasefire agreement. Egyptian

officials said they were hopeful an Israeli delegation

would arrive on Tuesday.

Both Hamas and the Israeli government will have to

convince supporters and the more general population

that the war has brought them victory.

A final deal could see Egypt loosen tight restrictions on

passage through its border into the Gaza strip,

providing a major boost to the local economy and to

the popularity of Hamas, which has been isolated

diplomatically and weakened financially in recent years.

Israel has consistently underlined its desire to see the

Islamist organisation, which took de facto control of

Gaza in 2007 after winning Palestinian elections the

previous year, disarmed.

On a visit to the Israeli army's southern command on

Monday afternoon, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin

Netanyahu, said that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF)

were concluding their action to destroy Hamas tunnels

but pledged the military operation would end "only

when quiet and security are restored to the citizens of

Israel for a lengthy period".

Israel has previously said that it would not agree to

ceasefires which it fears will be broken but will declare

an end to the conflict unilaterally when it believes the

right moment has come.

However, public statements by officials that the Israeli

military has achieved at least some of its objectives in

the war and has inflicted significant damage on Hamas

has been interpreted by some analysts as preparing

public opinion for a declaration that the conflict is now

over.

The Israeli military said it had resumed its attacks on

the Gaza Strip on Monday, ending a self-declared

unilateral ceasefire that had been in effect for much of

the day.

Israel had declared a seven-hour "humanitarian

window" in Gaza amid international outrage after a blast

outside a UN school sheltering displaced Palestinians,

which killed nine, and mounting pressure for the

bloodshed to end.

The blast has been blamed on an Israeli airstrike and

military officials acknowledged that they had been

targeting militants on a motorbike in the vicinity.

Monday's unilateral ceasefire was the eighth temporary

pause in fighting, nearly all of which have broken down

amid mutual accusations of violations.

The ceasefire slowed violence, though two Israeli

missiles hit a house in the Shati refugee camp in

northern Gaza around the time it started. That strike

killed an eight-year-old girl and wounded 29 people,

medics said. At least 18 Gazans were killed on

Monday, Palestinian officials said, most before the

ceasefire came into force. Dozens of bodies were

also retrieved from ruins.

Another Israeli strike killed a commander in the Islamic

Jihad group, a close ally of Gaza's militant Palestinian

Hamas rulers, the group said.

Israel says almost half of those killed in Gaza in recent

weeks were combatants. The UN say two thirds were

civilians.

The British Foreign Office said it was "urgently

investigating" claims that a British aid worker had been

killed in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, which has

seen some of the heaviest fighting in recent days.

The violence in Gaza appeared to be spilling over on

Monday, with Jerusalem the scene of what police said

were two suspected terrorist attacks, amid clashes

between Palestinian youths protesting over the Gaza

conflict and Israeli security forces.

A bus was rammed by an industrial digger in an ultra-

Orthodox neighbourhood close to the main

thoroughfare through the city. The driver, reported to

be a Palestinian from east Jerusalem, was shot dead

by police.

A 25-year-old Israeli man died after being hit by the

vehicle before it ploughed into the bus, overturning it.

Five people were lightly injured.

Less than three hours later, an Israeli soldier was shot

in the stomach in a tunnel near the main campus of

Hebrew University.

"Multiple shots were fired. One man was hit in the

stomach and rushed to the hospital in serious

condition," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

Police were searching for the assailant.

Police detained 12 Palestinians overnight who it said

were involved in "rioting" near the Old City. Protests in

east Jerusalem and the West Bank over the war in

Gaza in recent weeks have led to at least 10

Palestinians being killed by Israeli security forces.

The Israeli military reported that 53 rockets had been

fired at Israel on Monday. There were no reports of

injuries.

The Israeli ceasefire in Gaza had exempted the area

around Rafah, where the UN school was struck on

Sunday, and fighting continued there. Troops were

working on destroying a cross-border tunnel in the

area.

Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner said the IDF

were close to completing their mission to destroy the

network of tunnels leading into Israel. "We've caused

substantial damage to this network to an extent where

we've basically taken this huge threat and made it

minimal," he said.

Netanyahu said Israel had "no intention of attacking the

residents of Gaza" during a visit to the military's

southern command headquarters, according to a

statement released by the government press office.

"We struck a very severe blow at Hamas and the other

terrorist organisations. We have no intention of

attacking the residents of Gaza. In practice, it is Hamas

that is attacking them and denying them humanitarian

aid. I think that the international community needs to

strongly condemn Hamas and also demand, just as we

are demanding, that the rehabilitation of Gaza be linked

to its demilitarisation."

Egypt, a traditional broker in Hamas-Israeli conflicts,

had proposed last month, soon after the latest conflict

erupted, an unconditional ceasefire followed by talks

between the two sides.

Israel accepted that plan but Hamas rejected it,

accusing Cairo of bypassing the Palestinian

movement.

Last week Cairo invited the two sides again to send

their delegations for talks to work on a durable, long-

term ceasefire.

But Israel refused to send its negotiators, accusing

Hamas of breaching a UN-backed 72-hour

humanitarian truce that began on Friday but collapsed

within hours.

Earlier on Monday, Hamas accused Israel of breaching

that truce and of trying to scuttle the Cairo talks.

The Palestinian demands agreed on Sunday include "a

ceasefire; Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza; the end

of the siege of Gaza and opening its border

crossings".

They have also demanded fishing rights up to 12

nautical miles off Gaza's coast and the release of

Palestinian prisoners demanded by Hamas and the

Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.