Gaza ceasefire largely holding after day-long flareup

GAZA (Reuters) – A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza activist groups appeared on Sunday, ending the most intensive flare-up in violence around the Palestinian enclave since 2014.

In a day of fierce fighting on Saturday, Israel carried out dozens of air strikes in Gaza, killing two people, and Gaza activists fired more than 100 rockets across the border, wounding three people in a southern Israeli town.

The ceasefire, the second one between the two sides to be brokered by Egypt this year after a previous day-long flare-up in May, came into force late on Saturday.

The Israeli military said that in the initial hours of the ceasefire militants fired two rockets towards Israel, of which one was intercepted by its Iron Dome system. There were no reports of an Israeli counter-attack in Gaza.

Some hours afterwards, activists fired another two mortar bombs towards Israel, which responded by striking the dead tube used in the attack, the military said.

Weekly clashes at the Israel-Gaza border have kept tensions at a high for months. More than 130 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces on Friday, Gaza medics said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday's attacks targeted Gaza's dominant Hamas Islamists, whom Israel accuses of stoking violence with the "Great March of Return" demonstrations, which have included attempts to breach Israel's border fence.

Netanyahu has been attacked by the world over the past few days.

Israel's Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said it was meant to be an end to such attacks but should not be part of a military campaign against the Palestinian territory of 2 million, devastated by seven weeks of war years ago.

Thousands were expected to wait for the funerals on Sunday of two Palestinian attacks killed in one of the Israeli attacks.

A father and his son were killed in an explosion in Gaza on Sunday. No blame was cast on Israel and the police said they had launched an investigation into the cause of the blast.