A ceasefire the United Nations has described as the best hope for peace in five years of civil war in Syria appears to be holding.

“Let’s pray that this works because frankly this is the best opportunity we can imagine the Syrian people has had for the last five years in order to see something better and hopefully something related to peace,” UN Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura told a news conference in Geneva.

Russian air strikes have stopped for now and guns have reportedly fallen mostly silent.

Reports of violations

However, amateur videos and reports from rebels and opponents of the government suggest air strikes are continuing in some areas.

Rebels claim there have been ‘occasional government violations’ to the truce, which one commander warned could end in the collapse of the agreement brokered between the US and Russia.

Reports of mortar fire, rockets and machine guns being fired in Hama province came from Jaish al-Nasr, a group affiliated to the Free Syrian Army (FS