A fresh ceasefire halting days of conflict in Gaza could hold for years, but the obstacles blocking lasting peace in the region remain thorny and complex, according to experts on the Middle East.
Moments after the ceasefire came into effect, there were as crowds gathered to express their joy and cars honked their horns.
Palestinians gather in the streets of Gaza City as the ceasefire comes into effect. Source: AAP
How did the ceasefire happen?
Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations brokered the truce between Israel and the Palestinian armed groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, ending 11 days of fighting that first erupted on 10 May.
Egypt is also sending two delegations to Tel Aviv and the Palestinian territories to monitor the ceasefire implementation "and procedures to maintain stable conditions permanently".
Details of the in-principle ceasefire arrangement have not been publicly disclosed. UN chief Antonio Guterres said the next step was ensuring the ceasefire holds.
He said Israel and the Palestinians have a responsibility to have "a serious dialogue to address the root causes of the conflict".
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it is important the arrangement is durable and ends the "unacceptable cycle of violence" in the region.
Will it last for long?
Rodger Shanahan, research fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, said a ceasefire is likely to hold for a temporary period of time that could be as long as multiple years.
"Israelis haven't launched a ground assault, so there is no requirement to cease contact and withdraw troops from the territory," he told SBS News.
"It's indirect fire from Gaza Strip and air assault from Israeli side.
"And those are the kinds of things that are relatively easy to switch on and off."
But the concern of observers and analysts is what comes after the ceasefire - the much bigger question of long-term peace in the region.
"The seeds of future conflict tend to be sown during present conflict and certainly in the longer-term probably all that has been achieved here is to set the conditions for the next bout of fighting for some type of fighting in the future," Mr Shanahan said.
"It's not part of a broader strategic peace agreement. Without that it will just see a cessation for a period of time."
Mr Shanahan said the last 11 days of conflict did raise concerns about the possibility of a broader regional conflict.
"One of the issues that was interesting in this one - was while it was largely Gaza-centred it did spill into Jerusalem. And there were concerns that it might have spread further into Palestinian territories.
"Once it slips into Jerusalem and into the West Bank then it becomes a significant issue.
"With the Palestinian question, geography becomes quite important because that differentiates between a more localised conflict that players don't have to become decisively engaged in - and a much broader conflict which you can't really ignore.
"At the moment, we will probably see these more localised conflicts; and concern would rise if it became more broadly geographically based in the Palestinian territories."
Long-term peace prospects
Middle East analyst at the UNSW, Dr Anthony Billingsley, said the prospects for long-term peace have not improved with the latest fragile ceasefire.
"We're nowhere. There is no attempt by anyone to break the deadlock, the stalemate, the disappearance from the international agenda of Palestine," he told SBS News.
"And so this thing is just going to continue going. It doesn't contribute momentum towards communal reconciliation if you like."
Dr Billingsley said domestic politics and the attitudes of citizens had only further entrenched the status quo.
"Nothing is changed from this process, except [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu gets back into power and there will be more of the same - more expansion of settlements; more refusal to co-operate with any sort of international initiative on [the creation of] Palestine."
He said he believes a two-state solution - the co-existence of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel - is a "forlorn hope" at this point, but added "it is not an impossible situation".
"We saw that when Yitzhak Rabin was Prime Minister of Israel a dramatic change in the outlook of Palestinians and Israeli Jews towards each other.
"It was extraordinary and then of course it changed just as quickly.
"These people are ideologically driven, but also capable of being realistic if they can see benefits - and if enough pressure is applied to them."
Dr Anas Iqtait from the Australian National University's Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies said any effective peace plan will need to involve agreement from all parties to the principle of equality and justice.
"This [the ceasefire] will not change the fact that Palestinians do not enjoy the same rights as their Israeli counterparts.
"If the fighting stops that is of course good for Palestinians and Israelis, but the underlying conditions are continuing and until these conditions change, the Palestinians will continue to suffer under this current system."
The latest violence has resulted in the deaths of 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, and 12 Israelis, including two children.
The Israeli army said armed groups in Gaza have fired more than 4,300 rockets towards Israel in the last 11 days.
Egypt has allocated US$500 million to assist in reconstruction of buildings destroyed by Israeli air strikes.
The United Nations said nearly 450 buildings have been damaged, including six hospitals.
The UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, launched a 30-day flash appeal for US$38 million to cover the most urgent needs of Gazans and those living on the West Bank, as the violence continues.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the funds would be used to house up to 50,000 people in West Bank, including East Jerusalem, who are now residing in some 50 designated emergency shelters.
