Truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is largely after the outbreak

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell

GAZA / JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A truce between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, widely held on Saturday after one of the fiercest blazes along the unstable border for years.

Hamas declared that it had accepted the truce with Israel, one day after the clashes killed an Israeli soldier and four Palestinians, three

A senior Israeli official confirmed that a truce was in place

The Israeli army refused to comment on the ceasefire, but a military spokesman said that civilians could resume their normal activities

. An isolated incident, without any loss of life, of an Israeli tank fired at a Hamas post in Gaza after Palestinian suspects crossed the border fence and entered Israeli territory before retreating to Gaza, according to the report. # 39; army.

Disaster riots in the region at 13:00 GMT Saturday

On Friday, Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli soldier and the Israeli army launched dozens of strikes that killed three Hamas fighters. A fourth Palestinian was killed by Israeli gunfire during a demonstration near the border.

"With Egyptian and United Nations efforts, it was agreed to return to the era of calm between Israel and the Palestinian factions," said Fawzi Barhoum for the Islamist Hamas group that controls Gaza.

The soldier was the first member of the Israeli army killed on the Gaza front since a seven-week war in 2014 between Israel and Hamas, said a military spokesman. The Israeli army said its jets and tanks had hit 68 Hamas targets and destroyed "buildings and infrastructure and canceled important military and command and control capabilities."

"Hamas took a huge blow yesterday and the Egyptians called for a ceasefire," said a senior Israeli official who spoke under cover of anonymity.

Israeli strikes shook buildings in Gaza and the fire illuminated the night sky. Columns of thick smoke rose from bombed sites. The sirens of ambulances running in the streets were heard by residents preparing for a climb.

HIGH TENSIONS

Egyptian, Qatari and United Nations Authorities Contacted Hamas and Israel to Restore Calm and Prevent an Escape In the violence, Hamas official Taher Nono told Reuters:

In recent weeks, the border between Israel and Gaza has experienced one of the worst violence since the 2014 war. The ceasefire is the third agreement between Israel and Hamas to be negotiated by Egypt this year. year and the second truce must be agreed this week after a day of combat last Saturday.

Weekly clashes at the border between Israel and Gaza month. At least 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during border demonstrations each week since March, including one person killed at Friday's protest and more than 200 others wounded, many of them with tear gas.

Helium fireballs and kites launched by Palestinians in Gaza across the border have ravaged stretches of Israeli agricultural land. Israel has promised to stop the attacks, even at the risk of a wider conflict.

The Israeli official said that Hamas had promised the Egyptians that they would "put an end to terrorism and terrorism along the border fence."

Nono said that the truce would not mean that Israel would take over. "We will not allow the (Israeli) imposition of new equations on the ground," he told Reuters.

Israel says Hamas is orchestrating the protests, dubbed the Great March of Return, to cover the cross-border activities of militants. attacks. Hamas denies it.

The organizers of the protest say that they demand the right to return to the lands lost by Israel during the 1948 war and that an Israeli-Egyptian blockade has been established.

to counter the security threats posed by Hamas and other armed groups.

The rise in violence comes as Palestinian hopes for an independent state have diminished and peace talks are stalled. Gaza, home to 2 million people, most of whom depend on foreign aid, has been under Israeli economic sanctions for 12 years.

President Donald Trump's representative in the Middle East condemned Hamas on Friday after fighting began. "Hamas is working tirelessly to destroy Israeli lives (and Gazans are suffering because of Hamas)," Jason Greenblatt said on Twitter. Israel and the United States name Hamas as a terrorist organization

(Report by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Writing by Maayan Lubell and Ori Lewis, edited by James Dalgleish and Ros Russell)

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