Israeli and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials in the Gaza Strip said late Saturday they had reached an agreement to end the worst cross-border fighting since 2021.
Mohammed al-Hindi, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad leadership, told Al Kahera Wal Nas TV that the deal, brokered by Egyptian officials, would come into effect at 10 p.m. local time on Saturday, suggesting the end of the five-day period. soaring.
But within minutes of the deadline, sirens warning of incoming missiles went off in areas around the Gaza Strip, and Israel later said its plane hit two rocket launchers concealed in Gaza , leaving the durability of the agreement in question.
Tzachi Hanegbi, head of Israel’s National Security Council, said Israel’s acceptance of the truce meant that “calm will rhyme with calm”, and that if Israel is attacked or threatened, “it will continue to do whatever it takes to defend itself.”
Egyptian officials have been trying to negotiate a ceasefire since Wednesday, but previous rounds of talks broke down after Israel rejected a request from Islamic Jihad to stop targeted assassinations of his direction.
The cross-border exchange is the biggest since Israel and Hamas, the largest militant group that controls Gaza, waged an 11-day war in 2021. The Israeli military said Saturday that since the confrontation began, it had bombed 371 sites in the blocked coastal enclavewhile militants fired 1,234 rockets and mortars into Israel.
The fighting caps a year of rising Israeli-Palestinian tensions, with Israeli forces carrying out near-night raids in the occupied West Bank following attacks by Palestinians on Israelis, and Israel and militants in Gaza periodically exchanging rocket fire.
The latest round of violence erupted on Tuesday when Israel killed 15 people, including eight women and children, in airstrikes targeting three senior Islamic Jihad operatives it said were involved in firing rockets from Strip One. week earlier.
In the days that followed, a total of 33 people, including 9 women and children, were killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, and 147 people were injured. Israel said it killed at least six senior Islamic Jihad operatives.
In Israel, two people were killed by rocket fire, including a Palestinian with a work permit in Israel, and a woman who died when a rocket hit a building in the town of Rehovot. Five other people were injured in the strike in Rehovot, according to Israeli paramedics.
The salvoes of rockets forced residents of southern Israel into bomb shelters, and triggered warning sirens in the commercial center of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, which the militants targeted in a rare move on Friday.
The fighting has also worsened dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, a 365 km² enclave home to more than 2 million Palestinians whose economy has been devastated by a 16-year blockade by Israel and Egypt.
OCHA, the UN humanitarian affairs agency, warned on Friday that 417 people in the strip had been internally displaced during the fighting, mostly due to the destruction of their homes.
He added that the power cuts plaguing the enclave had also worsened, reducing the electricity supply to less than 12 hours a day in many parts of Gaza.
—————————————————-
Source link