Revellers swept joyously into the streets across the Middle East today after Hosni Mubarak stepped down as Egypt's president. From Beirut to Gaza, tens of thousands handed out candy, set off fireworks and unleashed celebratory gunfire into the air.
Even in Israel, which had watched Egypt's 18-day uprising against Mr Mubarak with some trepidation, a former Cabinet minister said the former president did the right thing.
"The street won. There was nothing that could be done. It's good that he did what he did," former defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who knew Mr Mubarak well and spoke to him just a day earlier, told Israel TV's Channel 10.
Despite the boisterous street scenes, governments in the region - from Israel to Tunisia, Jordan and Iraq - withheld comment hours after the dramatic announcement by Egyptian vice president Omar Suleiman that Mr Mubarak had stepped down.
An Israeli official said: "We just hope that the transition will go as smoothly as possible."
Israel's greatest concern in the past two weeks has been that its 1979 peace treaty with Egypt might not survive under a new government, particularly if Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood - the largest and most organised opposition group - gains influence. The Palestinian offshoot of the Brotherhood, the Islamic militant Hamas, seized control of the Gaza Strip, on Israel's doorstep, in 2007.
In Gaza, hopes were rising that a nearly four-year-old blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory might be coming to an end. Egypt had helped Israel enforce the blockade, which has kept some 1.5 million people confined to the tiny territory.
Across Gaza, many thousands rushed into the streets late today. Gunmen fired in the air and women distributed candy. "God bless Egypt, it's a day of joy and God willing all corrupt leaders in the world will fall," said Radwa Abu Ali, 55, one of those handing out sweets.
Hamas leaders called on the new Egypt to open the borders with Gaza. "Egypt wrote today a new chapter in the history of the Arab nations and I can see the blockade on Gaza shaking right now," Gaza's Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, told reporters.
Many thousands also celebrated today in Jordan, Tunisia and Lebanon where fireworks lit up the skies.
In Tunisia, cries of joy and the thundering honking of horns greeted the announcement. "God delivered our Egyptian brothers from this dictator," said Yacoub Youssef, one of those celebrating in the capital of Tunis.
On Lebanon's Al-Manar TV, the station run by the Shia Muslim Hezbollah faction, Egyptian anchor Amr Nassef, who was once imprisoned in Egypt for alleged ties to Islamists, cried on the air. "Allahu Akbar (God is great), the Pharaoh is dead. Am I dreaming? I'm afraid to be dreaming," he said.
In Jordan's capital of Amman, thousands gathered outside the Egyptian embassy shouted "mabrouk, mabrouk," Arabic for "congratulations," as fireworks burst into the sky. The crowd included members of the 500,000-strong Egyptian expatriate community in Jordan. Some burned a portrait of Mr Mubarak.
In Baghdad, lawmakers from all of Iraq's major political parties cheered Mr Mubarak's resignation as a win for democracy - a system still in its infancy in that nation.
"The resignation of Mubarak represents one of the marvellous days in history," said Sunni lawmaker Jamal al-Battekh, a member of the Iraqiya political alliance. "No one can stand against the will of the nation or especially the will of the youth, who have the ability to say no to the dictator of Egypt."
AP