Israel And Palestinian Guerrillas Declare Ceasefire In Gaza Starting Sunday Night

Illustration of the impact of the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, Palestine. (Wikimedia Commons/gloucester2gaza)

JAKARTA - Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group announced a ceasefire on Sunday night, raising hopes of ending the most serious turmoil on the Gaza border in more than a year.

Israeli forces pounded Palestinian targets throughout the weekend, triggering rocket attacks on its towns, which were largely reduced by the time the ceasefire took effect on Sunday evening at 23:30 local time.

The ceasefire was announced in separate statements by Islamic Jihad and later Israel, both of which thanked Egypt for brokering the ceasefire.

The three-day clashes echo the beginnings of previous Gaza wars, though they were relatively contained as Hamas, the Islamist group that rules in the Gaza Strip and a more powerful force than Iran-backed Islamic Jihad, has so far remained out.

Gaza officials say 44 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians and including children, have so far been killed. The rockets have threatened large parts of southern Israel and sent residents in cities including Tel Aviv and Ashkelon to shelters.

Israel launched what it called a pre-emptive strike on Friday, against what it anticipated would be an Islamic Jihad offensive meant to avenge the arrest of a leader of the group, Bassam al-Saadi, in the occupied West Bank.

In response, Islamic Jihad fired hundreds of rockets at Israel. At a news conference in Tehran, the group's leader Ziyad al-Nakhala, said Cairo would "work to secure the release" of al-Saadi. Israeli and Egyptian officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

On Sunday, Islamic Jihad expanded its range to fire toward Jerusalem in what it described as retaliation for Israel's overnight killing of the southern Gaza commander, the second senior officer to die in the fighting.

Israel said its Iron Dome missile interceptor system shot down the rocket west of the city. The military says others failed, leading to several deaths in Gaza, while Hamas says all Palestinian deaths were caused by Israeli strikes.

Confused by another wave of bloodshed, after the outbreak of war in 2008-09, 2012, 2014, and last year, Palestinians dismantled the ruins of their homes to save belongings.

"Who wants war? No one. But we also don't like to be silent when women, children and leaders are killed," said a Gaza taxi driver who just identified himself as Abu Mohammad.