The ceasefire agreement went into effect last Saturday evening after five days of war between Israeli army and Palestinian armed organizations in Gaza Strip, with 35 dead.

Cairo, which traditionally plays the role of mediator between the parties, secured the agreement of both sides to a ceasefire effective at 10 p.m., according to an Egyptian official and Palestinian sources familiar with the agreement. [σ.σ. τοπική ώρα και ώρα Ελλάδας].

But some rockets were launched for exampleabout a quarter of an hour after the truce theoretically took effect and Israeli strikes followed before apparent calm was restored and hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of the Gaza Strip, which had been deserted for several days.

Two more rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip after 23:00, according to the Israeli military, with no casualties except for three people who were injured as they fled to shelters, according to Israeli emergency services.

The deadly escalation in violence this week was the worst since last August. It began on Tuesday with Israeli strikes that killed three members of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, which Israel, the EU and the US define as a “terrorist” group.

Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad thanked Egypt for mediating.

“calm” for “calm”

“Israel’s response to the Egyptian initiative” was that “the reaction to the calm will be calm, and that if Israel is attacked or threatened, it will continue to do what it needs to do to defend itself,” Mr Hanegbi said.

Until last Saturday night, the Gaza Strip lived to the rhythm of Israeli airstrikes, and the Israeli zones bordering the tiny Palestinian coastal enclave to the rhythm of sirens warning of incoming missiles, which meant they had to take cover.

General Herchi Halevi, Chief of Israel’s National Defense General Staff, shortly before the ceasefire went into effect, expressed satisfaction that his troops had achieved what he called “important goals” in “this campaign.”

On the other hand, in the Gaza Strip, under a stifling Israeli blockade after Hamas took power in the enclave in 2007, the Interior Ministry accused the Israeli army of focusing its strikes on “non-military targets” and “residential houses.”

Yesterday afternoon, according to the Israeli army, a rocket fell on a rural area in Soket, less than ten kilometers from the Gaza Strip, injuring a Palestinian digger, whose death was later confirmed in a hospital.

The deaths bring the number of Palestinians killed in the fighting since Tuesday to 34. On the Israeli side, an 80-year-old woman was killed on Thursday in Rehovot in central Israel.

Among the 34 dead Palestinians, 6 officers of the military unit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, fighters of the organization, as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), another armed movement.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed the deaths of at least 13 Palestinian civilians, including seven children. The Israeli military said four civilians, including three children, were killed by Palestinian rockets fired at the Gaza Strip.

Chahal also said that 371 “targets” had been hit since Tuesday and that 1,230 rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel, of which more than 370 were intercepted by air defense systems and 970 entered Israeli airspace.

In August 2022, three days of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad killed 49 people on the Palestinian side, including 19 children, according to the UN. According to Israeli authorities, more than a thousand rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, three were injured.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP, DPA.