http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/gaza-truce-holds-as/1332800.html
The skies over Gaza remained calm on Wednesday (Aug 27) as a long-term ceasefire took hold, ending the deadliest violence in a decade with Israel and Hamas both claiming 'victory' in the 50-day war.
The agreement, which went into force at 1600 GMT (midnight, Singapore time) on Tuesday, was hailed by Washington as well as by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who said he hoped it would set the stage for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Both Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement, the de facto authority in Gaza, hailed the ceasefire as a victory after seven weeks of fighting has claimed the lives of 2,143 Palestinians and 70 on the Israeli side.
The Palestinians said it was a "permanent" truce, while a senior Israeli official described it as "unconditional and unlimited in time".
Under the deal, Israel will ease restrictions on the entry of goods, humanitarian aid and construction materials into Gaza and will expand the area open to Palestinian fishermen to six nautical miles. But talks on crunch issues such as Hamas's demands for a port and an airport and the release of prisoners, as well as Israel's calls to disarm militant groups, will be delayed until the negotiators return to Cairo within the coming month.
In Gaza, where celebrations erupted once the truce took hold, the festivities continued late into the night as its 1.8 million residents revelled in the end of seven weeks of bloody violence.
One of the main clauses of Tuesday's agreement was opening the crossings to allow in goods, humanitarian aid, medical supplies and materials to repair the water, electricity and mobile phone networks. But it was not immediately clear when the changes would go into effect.
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