Gaza officials say 31 Palestinians, at least a third of them civilians, had so far been killed
\nnews agency
\nJERUSALEM\/ GAZA
\nIsrael and Palestinian militants have agreed to a truce in Gaza from Sunday evening as mediated by Cairo, sources said, after a weekend-long pounding of Palestinian targets by Israel triggered longer-range rocket attacks against its cities.
\nAn Egyptian security source said Israel had agreed to the proposal, while a Palestinian official familiar with Egyptian efforts said the ceasefire would go into effect at 20:00 (1900 GMT).
\nSpokespeople for Israel and Islamic Jihad, the faction it has been fighting in Gaza since clashes erupted on Friday, did not confirm this, saying only that they were in contact with Cairo.
\nThe flare-up, recalling preludes to previous Gaza wars, has worried world powers. However, it has been relatively contained as Hamas, the governing Islamist group in the Gaza Strip and more powerful force than Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad, has so far stayed out. Gaza officials said 31 Palestinians, at least a third of them civilians, had so far been killed. The rockets have paralysed much of southern Israel and sent residents in cities including Tel Aviv and Ashkelon to shelters.
\nThe Egyptian security source said earlier that the proposed truce was to take effect at 2100 GMT.
\nOn Sunday morning, Islamic Jihad extended its range to fire toward Jerusalem in what it described as retaliation for the overnight killing of its southern Gaza commander by Israel – the second such senior officer it has lost in the fighting.
\n\u201cThe blood of the martyrs will not be wasted,\u201d Islamic Jihad said in a statement.
\nThe salvo came as religious Jews were fasting in an annual commemoration of two Jerusalem temples destroyed in antiquity. Israel said its Iron Dome interceptor, whose success rate the army put at 97%, shot down the rockets just west of the city.
\nPalestinians dazed by another surge of bloodshed – after outbreaks of war in 2008-09, 2012, 2014 and last year – picked through the ruins of houses to salvage furniture or documents.
\n\u201cWho wants a war? No one. But we also don\u2019t like to keep silent when women, children and leaders are killed,\u201d said a Gaza taxi driver who identified himself only as Abu Mohammad.
\n\u201cAn eye for an eye.\u201d
\nIsrael put the onus was on Islamic Jihad to stop shooting. \u201cQuiet will be answered with quiet,\u201d an army spokesman said. In another potential flashpoint, Jews marking the Tisha Be\u2019av fast visited the site where their ancient temples once stood – the Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City.
\nThe scheduled visits affront Palestinians for whom Al Aqsa is a national as well as a religious symbol. Video circulated online showed some Jews trying to pray in defiance of Israeli regulations, as police moved in to stop them and Muslim worshippers shouted in protest. read more
\nIsrael launched what it called pre-emptive strikes on Friday against what it anticipated would be an Islamic Jihad attack meant to avenge the arrest of a leader of the group in the occupied West Bank. Arrest sweeps against the group have continued in that territory.
\nThe hundreds of rockets fired by Islamic Jihad in response are the reason for the continuing operation, according to Israeli security cabinet minister Gideon Saar.
\n\u201cTo the extent that Islamic Jihad wants to protract this operation, it will regret it,\u201d he told Israel\u2019s Army Radio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gaza officials say 31 Palestinians, at least a third of them civilians, had so far been killed news agency JERUSALEM\/ GAZA Israel and Palestinian militants have agreed to a truce in Gaza from Sunday evening as mediated by Cairo, sources said, after a weekend-long pounding of Palestinian targets by Israel triggered longer-range rocket attacks against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1430,3163,10018],"class_list":{"0":"post-276216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-palestinian","10":"tag-truce"},"yoast_head":"\n