A cease-fire took effect between Israel and Hamas.

A cease-fire between Israel and Hamas took effect early Friday morning, hours after both sides agreed to end more than 10 days of fighting that had claimed hundreds of lives.

The truce, mediated by Egypt, began at 2 a.m. in Israel — 7 p.m. Thursday in the Eastern United States — as people on either side of the divide watched nervously to see whether it would hold.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced on Thursday evening that his security cabinet had voted unanimously to accept the Egyptian proposal, and officials of Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, confirmed that it, too, had accepted. But each side cautioned that its compliance could depend on the other’s actions.