GAZA: Israel and the militant Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza have agreed a truce, 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 said, and added the truce would begin at 10pm.

“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. There was no immediate confirmation from Israeli officials.

Even as the truce was being finalised, the two sides kept up firing, with warning sirens sounding in southern Israel 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 hundreds of rockets, sending one and a half million Israelis into air raid shelters.

During the five days of the campaign, Israel killed six senior Islamic Jihad commanders and destroyed a number of military installations but the airstrikes also killed at least 10 civilians, including women and children.

From dawn, Gaza fighters fired rockets, setting off sirens and sending Israelis across the border running to bomb shelters. A Palestinian labourer from Gaza who was working in Israel was killed by rocket shrapnel, a hospital spokesperson said.

The Israeli military said aircraft struck Islamic Jihad command centres and rocket launchers in Gaza. Huge clouds of smoke rose as loud explosions ripped through areas bombed.

In the Deir Al-Balah area of the central Gaza Strip, a building was flattened as houses nearby were knocked down. There were no reports of casualties as residents sifted through piles of rubble.

Air strikes on a house also damaged the nearby Shuhada Al-Aqsa hospital, wounding a number of nurses and patients with flying shrapnel, Eyad Abu Zaher, the hospital’s director, said.

Israel’s military says it has made every effort to limit civilian casualties and damage to houses and accuses Islamic Jihad of deliberately locating its command centres in residential areas.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the United Nations to intervene as violence spilled over to the occupied West Bank.

Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid on the outskirts of Nablus in the northern West Bank, where clashes had erupted, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. A military spokesman said gunmen exchanged fire with Israeli forces.

Hours later a Palestinian man, whom Israeli police said ran towards officers with a knife in his hand, was shot dead.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2023