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Israel-Gaza 'ceasefire begins' after two days of fighting Rockets fired at Israel after Gaza ceasefire starts
(about 4 hours later)
A ceasefire between Israel and militants in Gaza has come into effect after two days of the most intense fighting for months. Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have launched rockets towards Israel hours after a ceasefire took effect.
Egyptian and Palestinian sources said the truce began at 05:30 (03:30 GMT). Israel has not officially commented. The truce ended two days of intense fighting in which militants fired 450 rockets towards Israel and Israeli aircraft carried out waves of strikes.
Before fighting ended, a family of eight was killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza, Palestinians said. Early on Thursday, a family of eight were reportedly killed in Gaza. Israel said it had targeted a militant.
Thirty-two Palestinians died in the violence, local sources say, triggered when Israel killed a militant leader. At total of 34 Palestinians were killed in the fighting, while 63 Israelis needed medical treatment.
Israel says more than 20 of the Palestinian fatalities were militants. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said 25 of the Palestinian fatalities were militants.
Dozens more Palestinians and Israelis suffered injuries, according to medical sources on both sides. The fighting began on Tuesday when a senior commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Baha Abu al-Ata, and his wife were killed in an Israeli air strike.
More than 400 rockets were fired at Israel by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militant group, the Israeli military said, while Israel carried out waves of air strikes against what it said were PIJ targets. PIJ spokesman Musab al-Buraim said early on Thursday that it had agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt after Israel was "forced to accept the conditions set by the Palestinian resistance".
The violence erupted after Israel killed top PIJ commander Baha Abu al-Ata in a pre-dawn strike on Tuesday. Israel said he had been responsible for many rockets fired from Gaza and was planning an imminent attack. Those conditions were to stop "assassination operations" and the use of live fire against protesters near the Gaza border fence, and to start implementing steps to end the blockade of Gaza, he added.
The deadliest incident of the two days of fighting happened on Wednesday night when an air strike on a house in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza killed the family of eight. Israel did not publicly confirm the ceasefire, but Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Army Radio that "quiet will be answered with quiet".
Gaza's health ministry, run by the territory's dominant militant group Hamas, said all those who died were civilians, including a woman and a child. He also warned: "The State of Israel will not hesitate to strike at those who try to harm it, from the Gaza Strip or from anywhere else."
The Israeli military said the strike killed PIJ commander Rasmi Abu Malhous, who it said was the head of a rocket unit. The Jerusalem Post website quoted an unnamed Israeli official as denying any concessions had been made to the PIJ.
After the ceasefire began, UN Middle East peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov said both the UN and Egypt had "worked hard to prevent the most dangerous escalation in and around Gaza from leading to war". IDF Spokesman Brig Gen Hidai Zilberman said its operation in Gaza, dubbed "Black Belt", had achieved all of its objectives.
In a tweet, he called on both sides to "show maximum restraint and do their part to prevent bloodshed". "With a combination of military personnel from a variety of units who specialize in SIGINT [signals intelligence], HUMINT [human intelligence], we were able to attack cells and close the circle against targets very quickly. That's what killed 25 terrorists who were in the midst of carrying out hostile activity," he added.
UN Middle East peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov said both the UN and Egypt had "worked hard to prevent the most dangerous escalation in and around Gaza from leading to war".
However, five rockets were launched from Gaza hours after the ceasefire came into effect, the IDF said. Two were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defence system.
There were no immediate reports of any injuries or damage.
Meanwhile, Gaza's health ministry said eight members of the Abu Malhous family, including three children and two women, were killed in an Israeli air strike in Deir al-Balah, in southern Gaza, at about 01:35 on Thursday.
The ministry said the dead were all civilians. But the IDF insisted that the head of the family, Rasmi Abu Malhous, was a commander of a PIJ rocket-launching unit.
"He was an Islamic Jihad commander and he, like many others, had the tactic of hiding ammunition and military infrastructure in their own residence," spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus told AFP news agency. "Of course we try always to minimise the amount of non-combatants killed or injured."