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JERUSALEM – Children in Israel's south were heading to school early Wednesday as an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire took effect, putting an end to a brief yet intense flare-up with Gaza. The truce, announced Tuesday by Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip, came after nearly two days of heavy shelling from both sides that had threatened to go down into full-blown war.
Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers said they would abide by the ceasefire as long as Israel did the same.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the military did not comment, but the Home Front Command removed all the time.
At the United Nations Security Council held urgent consultations on Gaza Tuesday, and the Secretary-General's Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq told CBS News' Pam Falk that the global body has worked "very hard" with Egypt "to ensure that there is a return to the ceasefire arrangements of 2014. "
The U.N.'s Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace Process, "believes that it is possible to deescalate this current round of violence in the interest of both Palestinians and Israelis," Haq told CBS News.
A diplomatic source close to the negotiations told Falk, however, that the "situation remains very precarious and can blow up again."
Israel's hardline Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said on Tuesday he did not support stopping the strikes, he would be making a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
The latest violence, which saw seven Gazans killed in 24 hours the Israeli aerial bombing flattened buildings and felt fireballs and feathers of smoke in the sky, was the worst between Israel and Palestinian militants since 2014 war.
Sirens began sounding in southern Israel late Sunday, shooting around 460 rockets and mortar rounds were fired from Gaza, wounding 27 people, including three severely.
A Palestinian laborer from the occupied West Bank was killed when a rocket hit a building in the Israeli city of Ashkelon.
Taking heat, Netanyahu says Hamas "begged" for truce
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to defend his decision to abide by the truce on Wednesday, facing sharp criticism from some Israeli citizens who saw the move as a contrition to Hamas.
Some residents in the Israeli border town of Sderot, which is regularly hit by rockets from Gaza during flareups, were irate that Israel's military was holding its fire.
"Our government is doing whatever it wants, that is, it is only in the United States and we are third class citizens here in Sderot and (so are) the communities at the Gaza border, not only Sderot," resident David Maimon told The Associated Press. "It's a shame instead of helping us, let us live quietly, they let us suffer.
Herzl Zigzag, another resident Sderot, told the AP that he would "never vote for Netanyahu."
"People here are traumatized." Gaza is victorious, what is this? Nonsense? It can not continue like this, he said.
David Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu said, "In times of emergency, when making decisions crucial to security, the public must not be privy to the considerations that must be hidden from the enemy. "
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chats with Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot as they wait for an annual state memorial ceremony for Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, at his gravesite in Sde Boker, Israel, Nov. 14, 2018.
REUTERS
"Our enemies begged for a ceasefire and they knew very well why."
Ceasefire quickly agreed with Egypt's help
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Israel called on Israel to cease its "military action" in Gaza.
"Egypt's efforts have been made to ceasefire between the resistance and the Zionist enemy," the Gaza groups said.
The flare-up began on Sunday with a botched Israeli special forces operation inside the Gaza Strip that turned deadly and prompted Hamas to vow revenge.
The militants, including a local Hamas military commander, an Israeli army officer.
Palestinian militants reacted with rocket and mortar fire, as well as an anti-tank missile that hit a bus Hamas said to be used by Israeli soldiers. A soldier was severely wounded in the attack.
Schools were closed in Gaza and in southern Israel they would respond forcefully to any further violence.
After an Israeli security cabinet meeting that reportedly lasted some six hours on Tuesday, a statement was issued saying the ministers "instructed the (military) to continue its operations as necessary."
Missile defenses intercepted more than 100 rockets from Gaza and most others fell in open areas
Southern Israel "close call" as rockets hit
Ashkelon is just eight miles from the Gaza border, and as CBS News reports Charlie D'Agata reported on Tuesday, that makes it easy for Palestinian rockets.
D'Agata and his crew saw the aftermath on Tuesday of the Hamas rockets, which hit an Israeli house. It was a hole in the living room where a woman was watching TV when the warning siren rang out.
She begged her to come home to a safe house in the house, a move which may have saved both of their lives. Just minutes before the explosion, her was in the shower.
"That's a close call," Baney told D'Agata.
"Within two seconds (after air sirens) we heard a huge boom, we saw our flying in the air, windows (broken), and only after a few minutes when we went out, we realized that the missile had hit the building next Ashkelon said, "a man who lives near a block of flats.
Israel hit back with major air, with targets including Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV station and internal security headquarters in Gaza City.
The military said it struck some 160 targets in the enclave.
Israeli strikes "like an earthquake" in Gaza
"What happened was like an earthquake," said Abu Ayman Lemzeni, who lives near the targeted TV building.
At least five of the dead in Gaza have been claimed as members of various militant groups. Some 26 other people were wounded in the Palestinian territory, according to Gaza's health ministry.
The escalation came despite Netanyahu's decision to allow Qatar to transfer millions of dollars in favor of Gaza.
The accords had to calm protests along the Gaza border after months of deadly unrest.
Sunday's special forces operation and resulting upset those efforts, leading to questions over the timing of the covert Israeli move.
Israel said it was an intelligence-gathering operation and those efforts must continue to defend the country.
Israel and Palestinian activists in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008, and protests and clashes along the Gaza Strip.
At least 234 Palestinians in Gaza have since been killed by Israeli fire, the majority during protests and clashes.
Two Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same period.
