Palestine and Israel Reach a Truce

             After Israel's weekend shelling of Palestinian targets sparked longer-range rocket attacks against its cities, Israel and the Palestinian leadership reached an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza that will take effect as of Sunday evening, according to sources in Cairo.

 

Israel had accepted the idea, according to an Egyptian security source, while a Palestinian official acquainted with Egyptian operations stated that the truce will begin at 20:00. (1700 GMT). Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian organization, announced that they have accepted a ceasefire negotiated by Cairo to put an end to a three-day-long, fierce war with Israel that has claimed the lives of at least 41 Palestinians.

 

In a statement, senior Islamic Jihad member Mohammad al-Hindi said, "A little while ago the text of the Egyptian truce deal was achieved, which involves Egypt's pledge to strive towards the release of two detainees, (Bassem) al-Saadi and (Khalil) Awawdeh."

 

A senior member of Islamic Jihad's political branch Saadi was just detained in the West Bank, while Awawdeh is also being held by Israeli authorities. Late on Sunday, the health ministry in Gaza revealed the deaths of 10 more people, nine of whom were minors, bringing the total since combat started on Friday to 41.

 

More than 300 people had been hurt in Gaza, according to the ministry. Over the same period, medical personnel claimed that two Israelis had been hurt by shrapnel. Two rockets were shot down in the middle of Tel Aviv, the commercial hub of Israel, according to an AFP photographer on Sunday night.

 

We haven't slept for days because of the heat, shelling, and rockets, and the sound of aircraft hovering above us is terrible, according to Nour Abu Sultan, a 29-year-old who lives west of Gaza.

Since Friday, Israel has heavily shelled Islamic Jihad sites in Gaza with aircraft and artillery; in response, the latter group has launched hundreds of rockets. In Gaza, buildings are in ruins, and Israelis are forced to take cover from a barrage of rockets.

 

Early on Sunday, Islamic Jihad increased its barrage and launched two rockets at Jerusalem, but the Israeli army intercepted them. The entire "senior leadership of the military wing of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza has been neutralized," according to the military.

 

Despite severe shortages of medicine and fuel for power generators, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director general of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, claimed that doctors were treating injured patients who were in "extremely bad condition."

 

He stated earlier on Sunday, "We receive injured people every minute." According to the Gaza health ministry, 15 of the 41 fatalities were youngsters. Israel claimed to have "irrefutable" proof that an errant rocket fired by Islamic Jihad was to blame for the deaths of six kids in the northern Gazan neighborhood of Jabalia on Saturday.

 

Three children were among the six dead bodies that an AFP photographer spotted at the local hospital. Muhammad Abu Sadaa described the destruction in Jabalia: "We came hurrying to the spot and found body parts lying on the ground... They were torn-apart children."

 

The military claimed to have attacked 139 Islamic Jihad locations, during which time the terrorists fired over 600 rockets and mortar rounds, more than 100 of which missed their targets inside Gaza. Jews in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem observed the Tisha Be'av fasting day on Sunday at the Al-Aqsa mosque complex, also known as the Temple Mount, amidst the heightened tensions. The response from some Palestinians was "God is greatest," and Israeli police momentarily detained an AFP photographer, but otherwise, the commemorations went off without a hitch.