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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

The U.S.-proposed Gaza ceasefire deal, as presented, would result in a six-week ceasefire along, a limited exchange of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a surge in humanitarian aid to the war-torn Palestinian territory in the first phase.

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

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Thursday his Cabinet won’t meet to approve the agreement for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of dozens of hostages until Hamas backs down, accusing the group of reneging on parts of the agreement in an attempt to gain further concessions.