Iran said Wednesday that Palestinian militants had emerged the victors and brought their Israeli foe "to its knees" during the bloody 50-day Gaza conflict.  

"The heroic Palestinian people have forged a new era with the victory of the resistance which has brought the Zionist regime to its knees," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon and strongly condemned attempts to threaten the country’s security and stability.

In extending the mission’s mandate until August 31 2015, the Council commended the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon for helping to establish a “new strategic environment in southern Lebanon” and called for further cooperation between the force and the Lebanese army.

Several senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders appeared in public on Tuesday shortly after a Gaza truce took hold, the first time they had done so since the conflict began on July 8.

Among them was Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior member of the Hamas political wing, and senior Jihad official Mohammed al-Hindi, who gave a rousing victory speech to thousands of people gathered in a square in Gaza City's Rimal neighborhood. 

The United States gave full backing Tuesday to the announcement of a new long-term ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians after 50 days of violence in and around Gaza.

"We strongly support the ceasefire announcement," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, promising a statement from Secretary of State John Kerry later in the day.

Celebrations erupted in Gaza on Tuesday as a long-term ceasefire agreed by Israel and the Palestinians went into effect, ending 50 days of the deadliest violence in a decade.

The agreement, which came into effect at 1600 GMT, involves an immediate halt to the violence in Gaza, which began on July 8 and has claimed the lives of 2,143 Palestinians and 69 on the Israeli side.

The Lebanese Army found on Monday night a launchpad in the southern Marjeyoun al-Jarmaq area that was used to launch missiles into Israel, the army said in a communique on Tuesday.

"The Lebanese army executed a thorough inspection in the al-Jarmak valley area after unknown assailants fired rockets into the Palestinian territories from the said location,” the communique added.

Israel upped the pressure on Hamas Tuesday, with warplanes hitting two Gaza City highrises on day 50 of their conflict as the warring parties mulled a new Egyptian truce proposal.

There appeared to be little outward sign, however, of interest in the Egyptian proposal which seeks to broker a more permanent end to seven weeks of fighting in Gaza which has so far killed 2,137 Palestinians and 68 on the Israeli side.

A rocked was fired on Monday evening from southern Lebanon towards Israel, as sirens wailed across northern Israeli settlements without any immediate reports of injuries.

"A rocket was fired from an area near (the southern) al-Jarmaq region in Wadi al-Litani towards Israel,” LBCI television reported in the evening.

The head of Israel's manufacturers' association has urged his European counterparts not to boycott Israeli businesses, warning that such a move could hit Palestinians as well, in a letter seen Monday.

The open letter to European industry leaders comes a week before Israel is due to end exports of poultry and dairy produce from its West Bank settlements to the EU.

The Palestinian leadership is to demand the international community set a deadline for Israel to end its occupation of the territories, a senior official told Agence France-Presse on Monday. 

The move comes as Palestinian and world leaders continue to push for a halt to seven weeks of bloodshed in Gaza, and seek a more permanent end to violence between Israel and the Islamist movement, Hamas.