© Reuters. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike amid Israel-Gaza fighting in Deir al-Balah town in the central Gaza Strip, May 13, 2023. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
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By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -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 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.
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.