'hostilities' is a correct and usable word in written English.
You can use it to refer to expressions or actions of hostility between opposing forces, such as an armed conflict. For example: The two countries declared a ceasefire after months of hostilities.
Shortly before the meeting the council issued a statement expressing "grave concern at the continued fighting in and around Debaltseve" and demanded that all parties to the conflict cease hostilities immediately.
Speaking in Cairo, he said: "As I move to Syria, we will do whatever we can to urge and press for a cessation of hostilities and end to the killing and violence.
With hostilities in Ukraine rumbling on and the battle against Islamic State far from over, there is always the risk that one of the world's simmering conflicts will burst into life.
The members of the Security Council called for an immediate cessation of hostilities," Rwandan UN Ambassador Eugene Gasana told reporters after an emergency meeting of the 15-member council.
Kerry will seek "an immediate cessation of hostilities based on a return to the November 2012 ceasefire agreement," the White House said, stressing the need to protect civilian life both "in Gaza and in Israel".
There are people old enough to have set up homes, had children and lost marriages, who don't remember the war because they were young teenagers in 1994 when the IRA called that first cessation of hostilities.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, issued a statement condemning the breakdown of the ceasefire, adding he was "gravely disappointed by the return to hostilities" and urging the sides not to allow matters to escalate.
"The Cairo talks were based on an agreed premise of a total cessation of hostilities," said the Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev.
Ed's particular skill lay in his ability to bridge No 10 and No 11: Brown would send him to talk to Blair's team when hostilities were at their peak.
For decades, Tanzania has hosted refugees from neighbouring countries in the volatile Great Lakes region, but recently the government has made no secret of its desire to remove its refugee populations, particularly those from Burundi, where hostilities formally ceased in 2008.
The White House later said Obama and Cameron were calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and pressing for action that would lead to a permanent ceasefire.
