"In a phone call I had this evening with President Obama, I agreed with him that we should give the ceasefire a chance in order to enable a lull in the situation and allow for the citizens of Israel to return to routine," Israeli PrimeMinister Netanyahu told a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv Wednesday night.
Earlier, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr in a joint news conference in Cairo with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the ceasefire which came inti effect at 9 pm Israel time.
"I wish to thank President Obama for his resolute support for Israel's actions, for this operation and for Israel's right to defend itself. I also thank him for supporting the Iron Dome systems," Netanyahu said.
"However, Israel obviously cannot sit idly while our enemy reinforces itself with weapons of terror. Therefore we decided, President Obama and myself, that the United States and Israel would work together to fight the smuggling of weapons to the terror organizations - weapons, virtually all of which come from Iran."
He continued : "I realize that there are citizens who expect a harsher military action and we may very well need to do that. But at present, the right thing for the State of Israel is to exhaust this possibility of reaching a long-term ceasefire. As Prime Minister, I have the responsibility, and it is the highest responsibility, to make the right steps to ensure our security."
"The terror organizations assumed that we would avoid offensive action against them; they were wrong," Netanyahu said, adding that we "hit their senior commanders, we destroyed thousands of rockets which were aimed towards the South and most of those aimed towards central Israel, and we crushed Hamas' control facilities."
"I must say that we did this with the strong support of the leading authorities of the international community," the Prime Minister added.
As an official ceasefire between Israel and Gaza-based terror groups took hold Wednesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak declared that ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’ "had been completed successfully."
Evaluating Israel's progress in degrading Hamas's ability to terrorize Israeli civilians, firstly by targeting Hamas's military hierarchy and secondly by directly depriving the Iran-backed terror group of its weapons, Barak stated "all our objectives were reached, taking out the Fajr rockets, rocket launching pads, and Hamas offices."
The Israeli operation began after Hamas escalated the amount and type of weapons it fired against Israeli soldiers and civilians throughout October and into November, with the group launching hundreds of rockets and mortars and using anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
Israeli officials urged de-escalation and emphasized that continued rocket fire risked Israel renewing its targeted assassinations against Hamas's military leaders.
When Palestinian groups failed to deescalate, Israel opened its ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’ by targeting Hamas's military chief Ahmed Jabari.
Over the next hour, the Israeli Air Force largely eliminated Hamas's stockpile of advanced Iran-provided Fajr 5 missiles.
The Islamist group subsequently attempted to blanket Israeli population centers with rockets and mortars, but their efforts were complicated by the unprecedented successs of Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defense system.
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) engaged in more than 1,500 strikes against pre-identified and other targets, an order of magnitude higher than the 150 targets struck by the IAF during all of Israel's 2008 Operation Cast Lead.
Israeli sources reported strikes on 19 senior command centers, operational control centers, and Hamas's senior-rank headquarters, as well as on hundreds of underground rocket launchers, 140 smuggling tunnels, 66 terror tunnels, dozens of Hamas operation rooms and bases, 26 weapon manufacturing and storage facilities and dozens of long-range rocket launchers and launch sites.
In addition to eliminating Jabari, Israel also targeted senior Hamas operatives and commanders in charge of Hamas's terrorist activity in the southern Gaza Strip and of its air defense unit.
Israel also targeted Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operatives, including Ramiz Harb, head of propaganda, Baha Abu al-Ata, commander of PIJ's Gaza City Brigade, Tissir Mahmoud Mahmedd Jabari, a senior operative, and Halil Batini, a senior operative in charge of long-range rocket operations.
As of November 20, some 30 Hamas and PIJ operatives had been killed in IDF attacks.
"Quiet will be met with quiet and if the ceasefire will be violated, the Israel Defense Force will respond intensively," an Israeli source said, adding that the understandings for a ceasefire that was obtained by Egypt "was not only with Hamas but with all Palestinian faction that fire rockets."