Israeli Cabinet Votes to Approve Ceasefire

Following three hours of deliberations, the Israeli security cabinet voted unanimously on Thursday night to approve a ceasefire in the worst fighting with Gaza terrorists since 2014.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed the decision to “accept the Egyptian initiative for a mutual ceasefire without any conditions, which will go into effect at an hour that will be determined later.”

That put into doubt ‏earlier reports that a Hamas official had said the ceasefire would go into effect on Friday at 2 a.m.

Anticipating criticism over the apparent lack of a decisive outcome, the statement also noted that defense officials presented the ministers with the military achievements in the campaign, some of them “unprecedented,” The Times of Israel reported.

Meanwhile, Saudi outlet Al-Arabiya reported Thursday that Egypt would be sending monitors to the Gaza Strip to ensure that no rockets were fired at Israel during the period of de-escalation, to commence shortly.

The Egyptian monitors would operate in coordination with the United Nations and European states, the report said.