Israel Agrees on Egyptian-Proposed Truce with Palestine Militants.
After three days of severe fighting, Israel agreed to an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire with Palestinian militants in Gaza on Sunday, according to an Egyptian source. Islamic Jihad also confirmed that negotiations for a truce were in progress.
The talks give rise to expectations that Egypt would assist in mediating a compromise to stop the bloodiest violence in Gaza since an 11-day war last year ravaged the underdeveloped coastal region, which is home to around 2.3 million Palestinians.
Israel has been heavily shelling Islamic Jihad strongholds in Gaza since last Friday. The terrorists have responded by launching hundreds of missiles.
Since Friday, 275 people have been injured, at least 31 Palestinians have died, including six children, and numerous structures in the enclave have been reduced to rubble.
Shrapnel has injured two Israelis, while a volley of rockets launched from Gaza has caused others to seek cover.
According to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, authorities negotiated with each side “round the clock” to stop the fighting. According to a security source in Cairo, Israel “has accepted” a ceasefire, who also claimed that Cairo was awaiting the Palestinian answer.
“Discussions are happening at the highest levels towards calm,” a source from Islamic Jihad said, but added that “the resistance will not cease if the occupation’s (Israel’s) aggression and crimes do not end.”
Islamic Jihad, an organization supported by Iran and listed as a terrorist organization by several Western countries, increased its onslaught on Sunday and fired two rockets into Jerusalem, but the army shot them down.
The entire “high leadership of the military branch of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza has been neutralized,” according to the Israeli army.
Despite severe shortages of medicine and fuel for power generators, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director general of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, said that doctors were treating injured patients who were in “extremely terrible condition.”
On Sunday, he claimed that “we get wounded individuals every minute.”
The health ministry of Gaza, governed by the Islamist organization Hamas, reported 31 fatalities.
Eric is a professional news editor, writer, and blogger for the last 10 years. He is working with NewsGater as an off-beat news editor cum writer.