At 20:30 GMT on Sunday, the ceasefire agreed between Israel and Islamic Jihad began. The peace was short-lived, however, as airstrike sirens sounded in towns in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip minutes later. Despite this unstable start, the parties maintain the ceasefire, after three days of hostilities, with the mediation of Egypt.
Minutes after the deal was signed, the Iron Dome shot down a new missile launched by the Palestinian terror group.
“The sirens sounded in the sector adjacent to the Gaza Strip”, indicated the army in a brief statement on Sunday night. It had previously reported that its bombardments against Gaza were continuing after the ceasefire negotiated by Egypt came into force at 20:30 GMT, in response to rockets previously launched from the enclave.
Despite the fact that the agreement was maintained in the early hours of Monday, The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) indicated that for the time being they will maintain special security instructions for residents of areas near the Gaza Strip. This means that educational facilities in areas adjacent to the Palestinian enclave will remain closed, gatherings will be largely prohibited, and residents will have to stay close to bomb shelters, according to slogan Times ofIsrael.
Officially, those restrictions are valid until 6 p.m. Monday, but the Army will reevaluate them in the morning.
After three days of intense clashes, both Islamic Jihad and Israel accepted the ceasefire, with both sides keeping the right of reply in the event of future aggression. “If the ceasefire is violated, the State of Israel reserves the right to respond firmly,” the Israeli prime minister’s office noted, thanking Egypt “for its efforts” to mediate.
The Egyptian truce agreement includes “Egypt’s commitment to act in favor of the release of two prisoners, (Basem) Al Saadi and (Khalil) Awawdeh”he stated in a statement Mohammed Al Hindihead of the political arm of Islamic Jihad.
It was the arrest on Monday of Al Saadi, a leader of the Jihad, in the occupied West Bank, which unleashed this new escalation of violence in the region, the worst in Gaza since the eleven-day war in May 2021, which left 260 dead. on the Palestinian side and 14 on the Israeli side.
Israel justified its first attacks on Friday for fear of possible reprisals from Jihad terrorists from that 362 km2 enclave where 2.3 million Palestinians live and which has been under Israeli blockade for more than 15 years.
In response to the bombings, the extremist group, backed by the Iranian regime and included in the list of terrorist organizations of the United States and the European Union, fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.
Pending that truce, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced this Sunday that 17 more people, including nine children, were killed by Israeli attacks. Since Friday, “43 Palestinians fell as martyrs, including 15 children”, and “311 were injured”, according to the latest balance from the ministry of the enclave that governs the Hamas terrorist group.
In Gaza, “the situation is very bad,” he told the agency. AFP Mohamed Abu Salmiya, director of the Shifa hospital in that city. “There are wounded arriving every minute,” he added.
On Sunday, Islamic Jihad launched rockets towards Jerusalem for the first time, but these were shot down by the army. The shooting took place when hundreds of Israelis were commemorating a Jewish holiday in the holy city, with the visit of nationalists to the Esplanade of the Mosques, the third holy place in Islam but also the holiest for Judaism, which is known as the “Mount From the temple”.
An AFP photographer also saw intercepted rockets in downtown Tel Aviv Sunday night. In southern and central Israel, meanwhile, civilians were forced to take cover in bomb shelters.
Since Friday, three people have been injured by rocket fire and 13 others slightly injured in Israel. while they tried to get to safety, according to a last balance of the Magen David Adom emergency services.
Israel claimed, in turn, to have neutralized the entire “high leadership of the military wing of Islamic Jihad in Gaza.”
This includes Taysir al Jabari ‘Abu Mahmud’one of the main leaders of the terrorist group, killed on Friday in Gaza, has already Khaled Mansuranother senior commander, who fell in an attack in Rafah.
The death of these two military leaders was confirmed by the Islamic Jihad.
Israeli authorities claim that several Palestinian children were killed on Saturday night in Jabalia (north Gaza) for a failed rocket launch into Israel and not for attacks by its army.
This Sunday the Israeli army announced the arrest of another twenty members of that armed group in the occupied West Bank, who join other detainees on Saturday.
Hamas, the Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza since 2007, warned in a statement on Sunday against Israeli “incursions” that could lead to an “uncontrollable” situation. The Palestinian terrorist group, which has waged several wars against Israel, remains on the sidelines for now.
On the ground, daily life in Gaza has come to a standstill and the only power plant had to shut down on Saturday for lack of fuel, due to Israel’s blockade of the enclave’s entrances since Tuesday.
The United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA, in fact warned of the “serious risk” for the “continuity of essential basic services.”
With information from AFP
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