An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire in the Gaza conflict will go into effect later on Tuesday, a Hamas official said. - There was no immediate Israeli comment. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier he was open to a long-term deal to halt Palestinian rocket attacks on his country. "An agreement for calm has been reached. It will be declared at 9 o'clock (1900 GMT) and go into effect at midnight (2200 GMT)," Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters from Cairo, where efforts have been under way to end seven days of hostilities. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was heading to the region from Asia and was expected in Jerusalem late on Tuesday for talks with Netanyahu on Wednesday. Earlier, Egypt's state media quoted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi as announcing "that the farce of Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip will end on Tuesday". Mursi said, according to the reports, that "efforts to conclude a truce between the Palestinian and Israeli sides will produce positive results in the next few hours".

PressTV: Israel kills 7 more Palestinians in Gaza

Israel Reacts Violently to West Bank Protests.

Though most of the Israeli military’s killing these days is focused on the Gaza Strip, the military is also reacting more violently than usual toward West Bank protests, particularly antiwar rallies condemning the Gaza attacks. Two protesters in the West Bank have been killed over the weekend, including 31-year-old Rushdi Tamimi, who was shot in the back with live ammunition and later died of his injuries. The other slain protester, 22-year-old Hamdi Mohammad Jawwad al-Falah from Hebron, was shot four times by Israeli troops, who claimed he attacked them, and that despite apparently being unarmed he put the troops in “immediate and present danger for their lives.” 54 other protesters were wounded in rallies, mostly shot by rubber bullets or suffering from tear gas inhalation. Though Israel is regularly quick to move against West Bank protests, the intensity of the attacks has surprised many.

Jillian Kestler-D'Amours: Attacks on Gaza Unite Palestinians
PIC: IOF arrests 120 Palestinians in WB since the aggression on Gaza

A new wave of hatred towards Palestine is sweeping through Israel from public figures to the man on the street. This hostility is in sharp contrast to efforts in Cairo, where Arab leaders and Western diplomats are trying to hammer out a peace plan. - While Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) official Nabil Sheath expressed hope Sunday night that negotiations would continue, very different noises were coming out of Israel. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said Operation Pillar of Defense would continue and likely be expanded, a reference to the possibility that a ground offensive has already been given the go-ahead.

The war in Gaza “must be so painful and difficult that the terror groups will not think twice but a hundred times before they fire missiles against Israel again,” it was reported in The Israel National News. “Destroy and damage infrastructure, public buildings and government buildings. We must make sure that Hamas will be spending many years rebuilding Gaza, and not attacking Israel,” he continued. A few days ago he said, “The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages, only then will Israel be calm for the next 40 years.”

His words were relatively mild compared to some of the comments that have been coming out of Israel in recent days.

Gilad Atzmon: Sharon the Truth Teller
Khalid Amayreh: Israel's orgy of death in Gaza
Electronic Intifada: “Flatten” Gaza like Hiroshima and “mow” the population, Israeli public figures urge

Because while the IDF's "clinical, pinpoint" strikes as posted on the IDF's blog are one thing, here is how they look from the Gaza side...

Robert Fisk: 'Surgical air strikes', 'rooting out terror', and 'cyber-terrorism' cannot conceal reality - Terror, terror, terror, terror, terror. Here we go again. Israel is going to “root out Palestinian terror” – which it has been claiming to do, unsuccessfully, for 64 years – while Hamas, the latest in “Palestine’s” morbid militias, announces that Israel has “opened the gates of hell” by murdering its military leader, Ahmed al-Jabari. Hezbollah several times announced that Israel had “opened the gates of hell” for attacking Lebanon. Yasser Arafat, who was a super-terrorist, then a super-statesman – after capitulating on the White House lawn – and then became a super-terrorist again when he realised he’d been conned by Camp David; he, too waffled on about the “gates of hell” in 1982.

CLG: Turkey [Correctly] Labels Israel a 'Terrorist State'

Israel’s PM has reportedly pushed back by 24 hours an IDF ground invasion into Gaza, RT’s Middle East bureau chief said. The announcement precedes a series of critical international negotiations pushing for a ceasefire between the two sides. - The postponement of the military ground offensive coincides with UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s peace talks in Cairo, which lobbied for an immediate ceasefire. Ban is expected to arrive in Jerusalem on Tuesday before traveling into Gaza to assess the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to arrive in Israel for emergency talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. She is also scheduled for talks with Palestinian authority figures, but will not meet with any representatives of Hamas. Washington regards the organization as a terrorist group. A delegation of Arab League representatives arrived in Gaza on Monday in a gesture of solidarity with the Palestinians who have been under Israeli bombardment since last Wednesday. They discussed a truce that is set to be announced on Thursday, which Hamas has already agreed to in principle, an Egyptian official knowledgeable on the matter told Ahram Online. He added that the “details were still being worked out.”

PressTV: UN chief warns Israel against ground invasion of Gaza

The United States has dispatched three warships to the occupied Palestinian territories to evacuate US citizens caught up in the Israel-Gaza conflict in the event of need. - The three ships, USS Iwo Jima, the USS New York and the USS Gunston Hall are returning from Gibraltar to eastern Mediterranean to remain on standby to assist Americans leaving the occupied lands, according to two US officials. The officials stressed the evacuation remains a remote possibility and the Obama administration has no plans for the evacuation of the US citizens for the time being. "This is due diligence. It is better to be prepared should there be a need," one official said.

While each side blames the other for initiating the recent violence between Gaza and Israel, a time line for events gives some evidence that most often Palestinian attacks were a response to Israeli attacks. The Palestinians attempted to broker a truce.

The time line of events before November 11 can be found here and in part in the Norman Finkelstein interview appended. Qassam Count that records rocket attacks into Israel recorded no rockets on November 11. This may have been due to the fact that Palestinian factions were engaged in talks designed to result in a truce and a restoration of calm. Ynet reported that Egyptian intelligence officials had been able to broker an end to the violence that had been escalating. Ynet also reported: According to senior Egyptian sources, both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have agreed to hold their fire if Israel suspends its airstrike on Gaza. > Cairo-based sources said that Israel reportedly agreed not to retaliate over sporadic rocket fire from Gaza, as long as it was sans casualties However, on November 12 there were 2 rockets fired into Israel according to Qassam Count after two days of air attacks by Israel on the Gaza Strip. By the 13th of November Reuters was able to report that after 5 days of increasing violence, Israel and Palestinians had stepped back from the brink and sent signals to each other they would cease fire, unless they were attacked.

Ali Abunimah: How Israel shattered Gaza truce leading to escalating death and tragedy: a timeline
Antoine Raffoul: Gaza: Timeline, Fineline and Endgame

France has suffered a serious blow to its economic credentials after being stripped of its prized AAA credit rating by Moody’s. - The rating agency said France’s long-term economic growth had been hit by its inflexible labour market and low levels of innovation eroding its competitiveness and industrial base. Moody's also flagged up the country’s exposure to the continuing eurozone crisis. It warned the “predictability” of France’s resilence of further shocks in the eurozone was diminishing while the country’s exposure to the highly indebted countries such as Spain and Greece was disproportionately high. In a statement Moody’s said: “Further shocks to sovereign and bank credit markets would further undermine financial and economic stability in France as well as in other euro area countries.

EU foreign ministers say they view the National Coalition to be the "legitimate representatives" of the Syrian people. - European Union foreign ministers have said they view Syria's just-formed National Coalition to be the "legitimate representatives" of the Syrian people. A statement from the bloc's 27 ministers on Monday welcomed the November 11 formation of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces and said: "The EU considers them legitimate representatives of the aspirations of the Syrian people." "This agreement represents a major step towards the necessary unity of the Syrian opposition."

RIA Novosti: Syrian Rebels to Get Unified Command

November 18, 2012. Operation Pillar of Cloud, day 5. - I went again at Shifa hospital to report about the injuries. A whole family was killed today in Israeli airstrike on their house in Nasser street, Gaza city. 4 children died:

Ibrahim Al Dalu, 11 months old
Jamal Al Dalu, 6 years old
Yousif Al Dalu, 5 years old
Sara Al Dalu, 3 years old

Also, their parents were killed: Samah Al Dalu, 22 years old and Mohammed Al Dalu, 28 years old. Their aunt also was killed: Ranin Al Dalu, 22 years old, and an other aunt lost: Yara Al Dalu. Their grandmother also was killed, Suhila Al Dalu, 50 years old, and two neighbours: Abdallah Mzanar, 20 years old, and Amina Mznar, 80 years old.

There are still some people under the rubble. In this video, injuries arriving at Shifa hospital after many Israeli airstrikes. Most part of them are children.

CNN: Airstrike kills 10 in one home - Video