Palestinian fighters of Islamic Jihad and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire from 10.30 p.m. on Sunday evening. That write international news agencies and TV network Al Jazeera Sunday. It is not clear whether an agreement has been made about how long the ceasefire will last.
Earlier in the day, sources close to the negotiations that were brokered by Egypt already spoke of a ceasefire, which would go into effect around 7 p.m. Dutch time. Neither Islamic Jihad, a militant group against which Israel is fighting in the Gaza Strip, nor Israel itself has issued an official response. Shortly after the date on which the agreement was to take effect, rockets were fired.
Violence flared up again in the Gaza Strip on Friday after an Israeli attack that killed a high-ranking Islamic Jihad commander, Taysir al-Jabari. According to Israel, the group itself was preparing an attack. A second commander, Khaled Mansour, was killed by Israeli missiles on Saturday, Islamic Jihad said. Israel says it will bomb buildings and tunnels where Palestinian fighters store weapons.
43 killed, 311 injured
The death toll from the Israeli attacks rose further on Sunday to 43, reported the Palestinian Ministry of Health early in the evening. Earlier in the day, the ministry spoke of 29 dead. 311 Palestinian civilians are said to have been injured.
The rockets that Islamic Jihad fired at Israel, nearly six hundred on Sunday morning, have not caused any injuries, the Israeli emergency services said earlier in the day. Although the missiles ranged as far as Tel Aviv on Saturday and the outskirts of Jerusalem on Sunday, almost all of them were intercepted by Israel’s anti-aircraft defense system.