Israel and Palestinian factions including Hamas have agreed an open-ended ceasefire to begin at 7pm Tuesday evening local time (5pm London, 6 pm Brussels).
The ceasefire includes two stages: an initial period in which firing will stop and restrictions on crossings will be eased for humanitarian aid, with more long term issues to be addressed after one month.
Hamas previously rejected Egyptian ceasefire proposals which did not immediately meet all their demands.
Fire from Palestinian armed groups continued up to the scheduled beginning of the ceasefire, with one Israeli killed by a mortar on Tuesday afternoon.
What is in the ceasefire agreement?
According to reports, Hamas has agreed to immediately halt rocket fire and attacks into Israel, whilst Israel has committed to refrain from carrying out operational activity.
Israel will immediately allow for increased transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip from the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings, though entry of construction materials will be limited to prevent them being used by Hamas for military purposes.
Israel will increase the fishing zone off the Gaza coastline from three miles to eight miles.
After one month, more substatial issues will be discussed, including Hamas demands for construction of an airport and sea port in the Gaza Strip and the further opening up of the Gaza Strip's borders, including the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
However, Israeli officials have said that any more substantial lifting of restrictions must be linked to the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip, and the deployment of Palestinian Authority forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.
The issue of the release of Hamas members and activists arrested by Israel in the West Bank and Hamas fighters who were captured in Gaza, is also likely to come under discussion during this later period.
The EU has offered to play a role in ensuring the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip is conducted without allowing Hamas to rearm, and EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen said this week that the EU held Hamas responsible for the collapse of ceasefire talks last week.
The EU said it is ready to contribute to consolidating ceasefire, as said at the Foreign Affairs Council on 15 August.
Background to Operation Protective Edge
The escalation of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israeli towns and cities, in particular the firing of around 100 rockets on Monday 7 July, led the Israeli Security Cabinet to launch Operation Protective Edge, in an effort to restore quiet.
A ceasefire established after Operation Pillar of Defence in November 2012 began to erode with increasing Palestinian rocket fire in the first few months of 2014. The rocket fire increased further after Israel arrested hundreds of Hamas operatives in the West Bank whilst trying to find three Israeli teenagers abducted by Hamas operatives in June.
Though the current escalation was set off by events in the West Bank, Hamas was driven to escalate and continue the fighting to extricate itself from an economic and political crisis in the Gaza Strip, facing increasing regional isolation.
Israel did not seek an escalation in the Gaza Strip and consistently sent messages to Hamas that 'quiet would be answered with quiet'.
Israel launched a two week ground operation in the Gaza Strip on 17 July, following the rejection by Hamas of an Egyptian ceasefire proposal backed by the Arab League on 15 July. The main target of the ground operation was destroying concrete tunnels built by Hamas to carry terrorists under the border to carry out attacks in Israel.
In the conflict the Hamas run Gaza health ministry claims there over 2,000 fatalities, making no distinctions between operatives and civilians. Israel believes that between 750 and 1,000 of the Palestinian fatalities are terrorists.
There were a total of 64 Israeli military fatalities and five civilian fatalities, including a four year old boy killed by a mortar on Friday 22 August, and an individual killed on Tuesday 26 August.
Around 4000 rockets and mortars have been fired towards Israeli towns and cities since the start of Operation Protective Edge on 8 July. Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system intercepted hundreds of rockets heading for populated areas.