Israel and the militant Islamic Jihad movement 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 cease-fire, 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 cease-fire 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 cease-fire which will include an end to targeting civilians, house demolition, an end to targeting individuals immediately when the cease-fire goes into effect,” it said.
There was no immediate confirmation from Israeli officials.
Even as the truce was being finalized, 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.-Reuters
