TEL AVIV, Israel — Egypt has announced a cease-fire agreement to end a week of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr said the truce would take effect at 1 p.m. EDT. He made the announcement alongside visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the deal, saying he had agreed after consulting with President Barack Obama.
The deal is to end a week of fighting that has killed more than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis.
Earlier Wednesday, a bomb exploded aboard an Israeli bus near the nation’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv, wounding 27 people.
Thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in Gaza fearing Israeli airstrikes.
Hours after the bus blast, Clinton, shuttling across the region in truce talks, arrived in Cairo and met with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who was mediating between Israel and Hamas to end the fighting.
The blast, which left the bus charred and its windows blown out, was the first bombing in Tel Aviv since 2006.
Hamas has carried dozens of suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis.
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