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Agence France-Presse

Palestinian leaders in Gaza announced a ceasefire with Israel on Monday to end a deadly two-day escalation in violence that had threatened to widen into the fourth war between them since 2008.
An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the deal, but there appeared to have been no rocket fire or Israeli strikes in the hours after it was supposed to take effect, according to correspondents on the ground.

Israel also lifted restrictions on civilian movements in communities around the Gaza border on Monday morning.
Egypt brokered the agreement to cease hostilities from 4:30am local time, an official from the strip’s Islamist rulers Hamas and another from its allied group Islamic Jihad said on condition of anonymity.
An Egyptian official also confirmed the deal on condition of anonymity.
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It came after the most serious flare-up in violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since a 2014 war.
The escalation began on Saturday with massive rocket fire from Gaza, drawing waves of Israeli retaliatory strikes, and continued throughout Sunday. At least 23 Palestinians, including at least nine militants, were killed. Four Israelis civilians were killed.
The flare-up came as Hamas sought further steps from Israel toward easing its blockade under a previous ceasefire brokered by Egypt and the United Nations.

Israel at the same time faced pressure to restore calm and put an end to the rockets hitting communities in the country’s south.
It will commemorate its Memorial and Independence Days later this week and is also slated to host the Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv from May 14-18, which is expected to draw thousands to Israel.
On the Gazan side, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began on Monday.
Palestinian officials in Gaza accused Israel of not taking steps to ease its blockade as promised under previous ceasefire deals.
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The Islamic Jihad official said the new truce agreement was again based on Israel easing its blockade.
Among the steps, he said, were the relaxing of limits on fishing and improvements in Gaza’s electricity and fuel situation.
Israeli opposition politicians – and at least one from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own party – criticised the agreement.
Former military chief Benny Gantz, who challenged Netanyahu in Israel’s general elections on April 9, called it “another capitulation to blackmail by Hamas and terrorist organisations.”

Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008 and the escalation brought them to the brink of another.
The Palestinian dead included a commander for Hamas’s armed wing who Israel said it targeted because of his role in transferring money from Iran to militant groups in Gaza.
It was a rare admission of a targeted killing by Israel’s army.
Israel said its strikes were in response to Hamas and Islamic Jihad firing some 690 rockets or mortars across the border since Saturday, with air defences intercepting more than 240 of them.
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In addition to those killed and injured, the rockets repeatedly set off air raid alarms in southern Israel and sent residents running to shelters while also damaging houses. At least 35 of the rockets fell in urban areas, according to the army.
The army said its tanks and planes hit some 350 militant targets in Gaza in response.
It targeted militant sites and in some cases militants themselves as well as their homes if they were found to be storing weapons, military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said.
Several buildings in Gaza City were destroyed, including one Israel said included Hamas military intelligence and security offices.

Turkey said its state news agency Anadolu had an office in the building and strongly denounced the strike.
Gaza’s health ministry said the dead from the Israeli strikes included a 14-month-old baby and a pregnant woman, aged 37. It first identified the woman as the baby’s mother, but the family later clarified she was the aunt.
Israel strongly disputed the claim, with Conricus saying that based on intelligence the deaths of the woman and baby were not due to an Israeli strike.
“Their unfortunate death was not a result of (Israeli) weaponry but a Hamas rocket that was fired and exploded not where it was supposed to,” he said.
Masked Palestinian ‘night confusion units’ step up anti-Israel unrest at Gaza border with fire balloons and sound bombs
The Gazan ministry reported late on Sunday that another four-month-old baby was among those killed in Israeli strikes in the northern Gaza Strip. Israel’s army had no comment.
On Sunday, Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their armed wings had targeted an Israeli army vehicle with a Kornet anti-tank missile.
Conricus said a Kornet missile had hit a vehicle and killed an Israeli civilian.
Egyptian and UN officials held talks throughout to reach a truce, as they have done repeatedly in the past, and there were international calls for calm.

US President Donald Trump meanwhile assured Israel on Sunday that it had Washington’s full support against “these terrorist acts.”
The escalation followed a gradual uptick in violence that threatened a previous ceasefire, including clashes on Friday along the Gaza border that were the most violent in weeks.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Egypt and the UN, had led to relative calm around Israel’s election last month.
That truce saw Israel allow Qatar to provide millions of dollars in aid to Gaza, paying salaries and financing fuel purchases to ease severe electricity shortages.


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Middle East

Ceasefire between Israel and Palestine ends deadly two days of violence

A building in the Gaza Strip destroyed by Israeli air strikes. Photo: AFP

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Palestinians carry an injured boy outside a hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza strip on May 5, 2019. - Three Palestinians including a baby, were killed in Israeli strikes in northern Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave said, as fears of a full conflict grew. (Photo by ANAS BABA / AFP)

TOPSHOT - A picture taken on May 5, 2019, shows the remains of a building in Gaza City after it was hit during Israeli air strikes. - Israel's military carried out waves of retaliatory strikes in the Gaza Strip today after Palestinian rockets hit Israeli cities as a deadly escalation showed no signs of slowing, raising fears of war. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

TOPSHOT - The body of Saba Abu Arar, a Palestinian baby, lies at the morgue of al-Shifa hospita in Gaza City on May 4, 2019. - The baby was killed by an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip today, the health ministry in the enclave said today. Israel's army on May 5, denied claims from Gazan authorities that an Israeli strike killed the baby and her pregnant relative, saying errant Hamas fire was to blame for the deaths. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

An Israeli child on May 6, 2019, looks at the shattered glass of the entrance of a building that was damaged by a rocket strike from the Gaza Strip on the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, bordering the Palestinian enclave. - Palestinian leaders in Gaza agreed a ceasefire with Israel on today to end a deadly two-day escalation in violence that threatened to widen into war, officials with knowledge of the deal said. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)

TOPSHOT - Young girls and a man gather among debris and shattered glass in a room that was hit during an Israeli air strike on Rafah in the southern Gaza strip on May 5, 2019. - Gaza militants fired fresh rocket barrages at Israel early today in a deadly escalation that has seen Israel respond with waves of strikes as a fragile truce again faltered and a further escalation was feared. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP)

Israeli bombing kills four, including baby and her pregnant mother, after militants fire 250 rockets from Gaza

The body of 14-month old Palestinian baby Seba Abu Arar is seen at a hospital morgue in Gaza City. Photo: Reuters

Israeli air defense system Iron Dome takes out rockets fired from Gaza near Sderot, Israel, Saturday, May 4, 2019. Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired at least 90 rockets into southern Israel on Saturday, according to the Israeli military, triggering retaliatory airstrikes and tank fire against militant targets in the blockaded enclave and shattering a month-long lull in violence. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Palestinians gather on the beach in Gaza City as smoke and fire billow following airstrikes by Israel in response to rockets fired by Palestinian militants on May 4, 2019. - Gaza militants today fired some 200 rockets at Israel, which responded with strikes that killed a baby, her pregnant mother and another Palestinian, officials said, as a fragile ceasefire faltered and a further escalation was feared. (Photo by Sami AL-SULTAN / AFP)

epa07547310 Israeli airstrikes hit targets in in Gaza City, 04 May 2019. Reports state five Palestinians were killed, including three in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and two during protests after Friday prayer near the border with Israel eastern Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said almost 100 rockets were fired from the strip. EPA-EFE/MOHAMMED SABER

News

World

The escalation began on Saturday with massive rocket fire from Gaza, drawing waves of Israeli retaliatory strikes, and continued throughout Sunday
At least 23 Palestinians, including at least nine militants, were killed. Four Israelis civilians were killed


Egypt brokered the agreement to cease hostilities from 4:30am local time, according to the Gaza strip’s Islamist rulers Hamas and allied group Islamic Jihad.


Israel

Defence