and the militant islamichhad went into effect. crowds celebrated in the streets. emergency services and civil defence vehicles had their sirens blaring and lights flashing. the truce came into effect a few hours ago, signalling an end to the worst episode of cross borderfire in the last years. the agreement, brokered by egypt, follows five days of violent exchanges which have killed at least 35 people, all but one of them palestinians. there has been no comment from the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, or other officials since news of the truce emerged. a palestinian source told the bbc that the new agreement included a commitment by israel to stop so called targeted assassinations. israel has been demanding a complete halt to rocket fire by islamichhad at its civilians. for more on this i spoke earlier to khaled elgindy, senior fellow at the middle east institute and the director of its programme on palestine and palestinian israeli affairs.