An end to the hostilities in the Gaza Strip have been announced. Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the cease-fire that will take effect at 9 pm Middle East time.

Egypt’s new government was given praise for its efforts as it assumed a key roll in the process by Secretary of State Clinton.

Right up until the word of the truce came, rockets and aerial attacks continued from both sides of the border. A bomb blast tore through central Tel Aviv earlier today injuring 20 people. It hasn’t been determined if that blast was the work of a suicide bomber or if the package was left on the bus.

Sami Abu Zuhri, spokeman for Hamas called that bombing revenge for the deaths in Gaza, saying, “Hamas sends congratulations for this operation which occurred in Tel Aviv and confirms that this is the normal response for targeting the Daloo family and Palestinian women and children,” he said. “We will use all means to protect our Palestinian people whilst facing aggression which is targeting Palestinian women and children.”

Volley after volley of missile and air attacks rained down on Gaza in retaliation for that attack, killing at least ten including a small boy.

While Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he will work with the U.N., the U.S. and Jordon to work out a peaceful solution, Abbas blames this most recent conflict on Israel saying, “There is no doubt that Israel holds the responsibility, because despite all the tension between Gaza and Israel, Israel has started all the assassinations, and it assassinated one of Hamas leaders, which led to an escalation of the situations in those areas.”

Israel places the blame on the Palestinians. They say that the attack that killed the leader of the Hamas military wing and escalated the conflict was in direct response for the almost daily rocket fire into Israel. Netanyahu saiid before the meetings that he prefers a diplomatic solution to end the attacks but said that he pledged Israel will take every action to protect its citizens from these attacks.

With tensions running high, and anger on both sides, this new truce is a shaky one at best.