Gaza/Jerusalem: A deadly surge in violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel petered out overnight and Palestinian officials reported that Egypt had mediated a truce early on Monday.
The latest round of fighting erupted three days ago, peaking on Sunday when rockets and missiles from Gaza killed four civilians in Israel, and Israeli strikes killed 19 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians.
Two Palestinian officials and a TV station belonging to Hamas, Gaza’s Islamist rulers, said a ceasefire had been reached at 04.30am local time, apparently stopping the violence from broadening into a conflict which neither side seemed keen on fighting.
Israeli officials did not comment on whether a truce had been reached.
Israel’s military said that more than 600 rockets and other projectiles – over 150 of them intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system – had been fired at southern Israeli cities and villages since Friday. It said it attacked about 320 targets belonging to Gaza militant groups.
Israel said via Twitter that it thwarted a cyber offensive by Hamas by bombing the building where the hackers were based.
“We thwarted an attempted Hamas cyber offensive against Israeli targets.”
“Following our successful cyber defensive operation, we targeted a building where the Hamas cyber operatives work,” the IDF tweeted.