72-Hour Cease-Fire Takes Effect In Gaza

Enlarge this image toggle caption Tsafrir Abayov/AP Tsafrir Abayov/AP

Updated: 1:05 a.m. ET Tuesday:

The three-day truce that Israelis and Hamas have agreed to has gone into effect. Previous attempts to end the month-long fighting failed.

Original Post:

Israel has accepted a 72-hour cease-fire proposed by Egypt. It will take effect Tuesday morning local time.

Israeli officials "stressed that the cease-fire is unconditional and pointed out that its acceptance came about after Israel finished destroying the terror tunnels," the Jerusalem Post reports.

A Palestinian delegation has been holding talks with Egyptian mediators. It's not yet clear when Israel will send representatives to Cairo to participate.

Hamas had rejected the same proposal last month.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will now be expected to hold indirect talks aimed at finding terms for a more lasting truce.

"We are waiting on the Israelis to show up for the talks with the Egyptians about the proposed cease-fire," Izzat Risheq, a senior Hamas official, told CNN by telephone from Cairo.

As we reported earlier, Palestinians accused Israel of breaking its own seven-hour cease-fire on Monday. Three people, including an 8-year-old girl, were killed when a house at a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip was shelled, according to a Gaza health official.

Israeli police said one Israeli died Monday when a Palestinian construction worker crashed a backhoe into a Jerusalem bus.

In all, some 60 Israeli soldiers and three civilians in Israel have died. More than 1,800 Gazans have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials.