Mughrabi and James Mackenzie JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli warplanes and artillery attacked the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday and Palestinian medics said eight people were killed shortly after Israel and Hamas missed a deadline for a ceasefire that could pave the way for halting the Middle East's most devastating conflict in years.

Iran welcomed on Thursday a cease-fire deal to end Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, calling it a “historic victory” for Palestinians.

Four hundred and sixty-six days since Hamas fighters massacred over 1,000 Israelis and kidnapped hundreds more, the guns may finally be falling silent.

Israel supplied Iran with centrifuge platforms containing explosives for its nuclear enrichment program in an act of sabotage.

The Gaza ceasefire will come into effect at 0630 GMT on Sunday. The White House expects three female hostages to be released to Israel in the afternoon through the Red Cross. Thirty-three of the 98 remaining Israeli hostages, including women, children, men over 50 and ill and wounded captives, are to be freed in the first phase of the ceasefire.

To better understand what the cease-fire will mean for the Israelis, the Palestinians, and the Middle East, Foreign Affairs turned to Marc Lynch, a professor of political science at George Washington University and the director of its Middle East Studies program.

What began as a battle between Israel and Hamas morphed into a much wider regional conflict that has reshaped much of the Middle East.

Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are claiming credit for the Gaza deal. But it was the incoming US president who gave Israel the ultimatum of signing on or getting alienated. It worked.

A year after Israel vowed to wipe Hamas ‘off the face of the earth’ following the 7 October attack into Israel the conflict has spread across the Middle East

Israel wants to annex the occupied West Bank and further weaken Iran, but Trump's other priorities may hold those back

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) criticized the ceasefire and hostage-release deal mediators struck between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday, saying the only agreement should be Hamas’s “unconditional