GAZA/JERUSALEM, May 13 (Reuters) – Israel and the militant Islamic Jihad group in Gaza have agreed a truce that will go into effect at 10 p.m. (1900 GMT), Palestinian officials said, signalling an end to the worst episode of cross-border fire since a 10-day war in 2021.
Egypt, which brokered the ceasefire, called on all sides to adhere to the agreement, Egypt’s Al-Qahera News television channel reported.
“In the light of the agreement of the Palestinian and the Israeli side, Egypt announces a ceasefire between the Palestinian and the Israeli side has been reached,” a text of the agreement seen by Reuters read, and added the truce would begin at 10 p.m.
“The two sides will abide by the ceasefire which will include an end to targeting civilians, house demolition, an end to targeting individuals immediately when the ceasefire goes into effect,” it said.
Islamic Jihad confirmed a truce had been reached. “We declare our acceptance of the Egyptian announcement and we will abide by it as long as the occupation (Israel) abides by it,” the group’s spokesman Dawoud Shehab said.
There was no immediate confirmation from Israel, which rarely acknowledges such agreements with Palestinian militant groups it designates as terrorist organisations.
[1/6] A man stands in a damaged building at the site of deadly Israeli raid in Balata camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank May 13, 2023. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
Even as the truce was being finalised, the two sides kept up firing, with air raid sirens sounding as far as Tel Aviv’s suburbs and Israel’s military announcing it had hit six operational command posts of Islamic Jihad.
Israel launched the latest round of airstrikes in the early hours of Tuesday, announcing that it was targeting Islamic Jihad commanders who had planned attacks in Israel.
In response, the Iranian-backed group fired more than 1,000 rockets, sending Israelis fleeing into bomb shelters.
During the five days of the campaign, Israel killed six senior Islamic Jihad commanders and destroyed a number of military installations.
But at least 10 civilians, including women and children, were also killed in Gaza during the fighting and two people – an Israeli woman and a Palestinian labourer – were killed by Palestinian rocket fire in Israel.
Islamic Jihad spurns coexistence with Israel and preaches its destruction. Top ministers of Israel’s religious nationalist government rule out any state sought by Palestinians in territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell; Editing by William Mallard
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