>> welcome to the special edition. breaking news from the middle east. 250 lives claimed from 11 days of airstrikes. hostilities coming to an end, the cease-fire described as a mutual and simultaneous truce by sources. this comes one day after joe biden urged benjamin netanyahu to seek the escalation -- de-

escalation. officials in the gaza strip say 230 palestinians have been killed while isreali officials put the death toll on their side at 12. what more do we know of this cease-fi? reporter: we have had a confirmation from the prime minister's office and the explanation is the security cabinet, israel's, accepted the recommendations of the military who said at this stage if there would not be a ground operation, proceedings are going to be continuing only from the air and that israel had reached the limit of what could be achieved from t air so they made the decision not to have a ground operation and to accept the

military recommendation. the information about timing came from hamas. 2 a.m. local time, this morning. there are reports of hamas rocket fire coming into israel. previous rounds of hostility from the 2014 war, so i anticipate there willtill b rocket fire until 2 a.m. and at 2 a.m., we will settle down to see how the morning looks. it is not a truce. ere arno terms. it is a cease-fire. both sides are putting down weapons for the moment. >> thank you on that one. in terms of whether this will hold, as you pointed out, it is hard to tell. something may be negotiated in

some form officially. >> i just saw something from islamic jihad, onef the militant groups fighting with hamas on this. i don't know how high up that was but you are right, perhaps not all the militant groups have agreed. perhaps not everyone in or outside the gaza strip approves of this. 2:00 a.m. is the deadline. why would you stop firing? it is hard toell. when it is not a truce, it means there are no terms. both sides agreed to lay down arms. there is no deal. no, if you stop this, we will stop that. there is no change to the situation. it goes back to how it was before.

intermittent firing. certainly from the gaza strip into southern israel and intermittent airstrikes. explosions, such as we saw. >> stay with us. we will get reaction. stay with us. we will come back to you shortly. our correspondent awaiting us in washington, good evening. i imagine joe biden might be seeing this as a victory for himself? reporter: we are expecting the u.s. president to possibly make a statement in the coming minutes or hours -- probably by the end of the day. no confirmation yet. it is likely to be seen by the biden administration as a

success for what they have been pushing for the. of time -- period of time this violence took place. their strategy of despondency -- quiet, behind the scene diplomacy, they have been repeating this as the pressure was mounting to call for a cease-fire, which he managed to hold off until a couple days ago where he was seen saying he supported a ceasfire and that he was expecting a significant de-escalation on the path to cease-fire. that was yesterday coming out of a reado of a pho call between joe biden and benjamin netanyahu. despite those small evolutions and the public positioning of the administratn, white house officials were repeating besides those public statements there

was really a strong, intense, quiet, behind the scenes diplomacy going on and they felt that was the most constructive strategy, whether it was with the israelis, palestinians or partners in the regions including the egyptians, with joe biden speaking to them earlier today, talking about the possible ceaseire. we will see how joe biden frames that. it seems what some white house official had said, wch is that, while the public statements mayave been very carel and balanced, the final conversation between joe biden and benjamin netanyahu was much firmer than the readout led to believe and joe biden was really pressing benjamin netanyahu, telling him the u.s. was really reaching a breaking point as to

w to protect and not call for a cease-fire and they needed to something quickly, and that might have pushed the israelis further toward cease-fire. >> and marked difference. i'm speculative. given the previous administration, i think we can safely say, a marked difference in approach from washington this time. reporter: yes. it was not something automatic for joe biden, even though it was night and day from what we saw with donald trump, which was really a blanket siding with israel. with joe biden, it was more about diplomacy, the u.s.' long standing ties with israel. the administration had to be nudged in calling or suppoing that cease-fire.

you saw an evolution over the past week, 10 days, especially with pressure coming from within the democratic party. what you saw here in the u.s., while the violence was breaking out in the region, den -- in israel, gaza and the west bank -- here in the u.s., you saw this shift,e would not have seen 10 years ago. you would not have seen that many democratic representatives coming out so forcefully in condemning some of the positioning or actions of the israeli government. we saw several democrats really need to call for a cease-fire now. this is no longer the time to st say israel has the right to defend ielf. you need to do more to intervene in that situation, to make the violence end.

today, you had senator bernie sanders, who had introduced a resolution in the senate to block $735 million arms sale from the u.s. to israel saying right now, given the situation, it was not normal to validate such a huge arms sale to israel without any control or conditions with what they would do with it. where that resolution will go now that there is a cease-fire is still a guessing game. the fact that happened, coming from bernie sanders, who is of course, of jewish faith, was a sort of change within the democratic party. they think joe biden's stance was a symbol of that small shift you are seeing within the party. >> that same question raised by jeremy corbyn in the u.k.

stay with us. let's go back to jerusalem for reaction. i imagine benjamin netanyahu may be trying to make the best of this and couch this as a victory? reporter: yes. they talk here about the victory picture. what are you going to present? what does each side present to their public? each side claims victory. what netanyahu is presenting is the victory picture is the destruction of so much of the underground, the network of tunnels hamas has built for itself and production of weapons. none of those were made available to civilians to use as bomb shelters. it is hundreds of kilometers, israel said it destroyed something like 200 kometers of

what they call the metro, e underground netwk system, the tunnel system. that is what netanyahu will be presenting to the public as the victory. i have to say, i was his hearing today a presentatn of previous statements netanyahu had made after previo rounds. they sound like this. same words. we hit hamasard. this is what we achieved. they suffered a mighty blow. all those kinds of things. i don't know how much longer that is going to work with the public. it is familiar. when you hear the clips replayed, there is no difference between them. another round came. >> thank you very much indeed. we have been following this night and day since it began. 250 lives lost in that time. more on the palestinian side than on the israeli sighed, as

often is the case in these exchanges between hamas and the israeli army. we heard about the way netanyahu is probably going to spin this to be a big success for him and israel, inasmuch as hamas' appar atus has been destroyed by the airstrikes on the gaza strip. in those airstrikes, innocent lives were lost. children were killed. this is part of the huge tragedy of the ongoing situation in the middle east. the reason why international voices pushed toward a cease-fire, in the early hours of friday. i am wondering of the next step of the gaza strip. what about the gaza strip?

where do they go from here? >> to elaborate more on what our correspondence was saying, the victory picture clearly for hamas will be, well, they have been trying to suffocate us for years and yet we still managed to make our own rockets and get through the iron dome system and we managed to hit israel all over the country. that is the likely hamas victory picture. what she was saying about netanyahu's statements are similar after every round of violence, so, hamas' statements are similar after every round. they play on this david verse goliath narrative, because they have been located in the gaza

strip. you have to distinguish between hamas as the military and political leadership and ordinary people, who always pay the price in such conflicts. an estimated 58,000 palestinians have fled their homes, because obviously they were in a panic about possibly being raised to the ground. many sought shelter in u.n. schools. those schools are crowded. that raises questions about public health and continuing covid problems. the infrastructure of gaza clearly has been weakened further. it was already in a pretty shambles state after 14 years of blockade. we have heard about medical supplies running low, water and fuel for electricity running low and the world health organization has been talking

about a drastic reduction in the amount of drugs that have circulated for people who have got whatever condition they may have, diabetes or anything like that. this is the most tragic part in a sense. once the guns fall silent, the world's cameras tend to go away but the misery gets worse and then a few years later, we see another round of fighting between the sides and a further weakening, therefore, of the whole civilian infrastructure, civil society, schools, all that kind o thing. it is hard to see a way out of this. >> unfortunately, this is not the time we have stood here discussing this very conflict in various shapes and forms. one could begin to mention the coronavirus pandemic. we have no idea what effect it

is having in the gaza strip. the situation is serious but at least the funding has come back for the u.n. mission in gaza, which is clearly a positive but how does that make up for what is lost? that is the other aspect about this. something is built, something is destroyed. the people are caught in the crossfire. thank you very much. stay with us. we are looking at the terms, conditions of the cease-fire, declared in the middle east, hamas and israel confirming it will take effect in the wee small hours of friday. we understand there are still rockets being fired from gaza into southern israel. this may continue until 2 a.m. paris time, 4 a.m. local time. we are watching for all

developments. more comments and analysis, from the arab gulf states institute. egypt playing a big role. the president ordering a dispatch of security delegations into israel and the palestinian territories to work toward upholding this cease-fire, from egyptian state television. it is a fairly reliable source in terms of what the egyptian state is saying. what do you think of what is happening so far and the role egypt played? >> it is all grimly familiar. is is the fifth major confrontation between hamas and isel over gaza. each timit has folwed the same script. the ending is always egyptian brokered cease-fire. egypt is uniquely able to do this because it is a country that has a good relationship with israel going back to the

early 1980's, a working relationship with hamas, which they are not friendly with but they border each other. egypt rders gaza and conols the only crossing not controlled by israel. egypt ruled gaza between 1948 and 1960. they have had to deal with each other since the outset of hama'' founding in 1987. the egyptians can talk to both sides and have a national imperative for calm in gaza. they always end upegotiating this. it follows an exact pattern. both egypt and hamas are comfortable with this cycle of violence. it serves other interests for them. >> 11 days of destruction and death. >> yes. >> sadly, this seems to stop, or officially at least, but the issues remain the same.

the issues are still there. >> here's what it is. the reason it persists -- let's be honest -- both israel and hamas haveptions. there are things they uld do differently that would break the cycle. it would require boldness, compromise, doing all kinds of things. there are many things they could do to break out of this. neither does. the reason is, it serves a broader intest. they have priorities beyond avoiding the next round of violence. for the israelis, this toxic relationship in gaza serves the interest of the settlement group. it makes it possible for israel to say, hamas is divided, terrorist organization, the settlements are a forward defense against terrorists and the plo and go ahead and settle with the west bank.

that is a national imperative for israel acrding to the nation state law of 2018 and israel poly. for hamas, their main goal is to take over the palestinian national movement, to take over the pa and the plo and to exercise control in all the palestinian areas and dominate the national movement. for them, this violence is the main competitive advantage in domestic palestinian politics. they claim they lead the struggle, they force the israelis to pay a price, they strike back and defend jerusalem and the koran and the flag and the arabs and the muslims and all that stuff. then the others look impotent and supine by comparison because they d't fight israelis. for israel, they are in search of more land. this routine of death and destruction is very helpful. >> you mentioned the plo and

others, the four-year mandate, almost 20 years he has been president, the recent elections called off because hamas were about to win. >> we will never have an election. they did not want one. they knew they would not have one. it was a charade. >> completely. >> completely charade from day one, yes. >> on the other side, netanyahu -- is his tactic, it is not a strategy -- it is a strategy of keeping hostilities going in terms of building his own safety barrier to keep himself in power? >> he didn't plan this but from the minute there was unrest in jerusalem, both he and hamas saw political opportunities. i think he did work to escalate at every stage, once it got

going. has saved his bacon. it has salvaged his career. >> he can say hamas is escalating. >> he will deny it. it is obvious. he didn't do anything t de-escalate. there was no need r israel to behave in as heavy-handed away as they did in jerusalem with the evictis, the closing of the damascus gate, the cutting of the loudspeakers at the mosque -- there was a lot of provocation in jerusalem. the israelisnd americans were warned by the egyptians and the jordanians that the tinder was smoking in jerusalem. no one acted. netanyahu has benefited. i see no evidence he did anything but try to escalate when he could. it is opportunistic. that is true of hamas too. they saw, as it was dying off,

after a couple years unrest, they saw the opportunity to charge in, sees the flag, the koran,nd claim to be the great defenders of everybody. these are a pair of amazing cynics. >> horribly machiavellian. >> entirely machiavellian. it is very cynical. it has to do with pursuing your own goals, political and strategic. not caring about what happens to other people at all. >> can you bear with us, please? i need to bring back our correspondents. egypt playing a large part in the negotiation, to monitor the cease-fire. this coming from different sources. the 11 day war now a subject of a cessation of hostilities. our correspondent, standing by in cairo, joining us now. good evening.

can you tell us more about the world -- the role egypt has played so far in bringing this conflict to a pause? >> egypt is in the position to speak with both sides. they have a good relationship with israel. they are in a unique vision to talk with both sides. they sent a delegation first to gaza, then to tel aviv. they have been involved in negotiations from the beginning. >> what role do you expect egypt to play now between, we appear to have lost our link to our correspondent in cairo. these things happen on television, especially in breaking news organizations.

talking about the way egypt is trying to shape the cease-fire. the role of egypt going forward, i imagine is going to be key. they will be closest in getting to both sides, to ensure both sides keep each other happy. >> probably our correspondent was about to come onto this, unfortunately we lost the connection -- we have heard from egypt state television that the president has ordered two security delegations to leave egypt, one going into israel and the other into the palestinian territories to work toward upholding the cease-fire. that quote is from egypt state tv. i will wait to see if we get another newsflash or something that explains what that means in terms of the palestinian territories.

why is it in the plural? i don't know if that is a reference to egyptian outreach to gaza strip and to the west bank. i'm not entirely sure. we will keep an eye on that. >> with the issues, as they have been, we have had issues in the west bank as well, relating to the possible evictions of families. we saw the demonstrations with demonstrators killed a couple days ago in the west bank. there are hostilities and issues to be solved. envoys will come in. >> i suppose that is possible. i don't know much more about that particular aspect of egypt and the west bank to be honest but yeah i suppose the question is, the bigger question is -- where does this war leave hamas and fatah? presumably more divided and separate than ever before and

palestinian reconciliation looking, i suppose, even less likely than it was 11 days ago, perhaps. a very fragmented palestinian politics, which, again, to pick up on your discussion before with the guest about being machiavellian, that is probably not unwelcome to netanyahu, the idea that hamas and fatah have been further than they ever would. >> inevitably, that would prosper from it. thank you. let's try a go back to cairo -- to go back to cairo to get more on the role egypt will be playing going forward in maintaining this pause in hostilities. tell us more about egypt. reporter: egypt has a clear

interest to maintain the cease-fire in the sense it sees itself as a leader in the arab groups. part of that is that they like to seem like protectors of the palestinians. the border with gaza, during the fighting, they took wounded -- [no audio] >> telecommunications coming out of cairo clearly under great strain because of the story. our correspondent is there. we will leave alone for now. we are standing by in washington

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[captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i especially appreciate the support of our friend the u.s. president joe biden. i am determined to continue this operation until its objective is achieved to restore quiet insecurity to you, the citizens of israel. amy: israel's bombing of gaza continues as israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu rejects growing calls for a