Gaza truce largely holds after Israeli strikes over soldier death

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: A ceasefire announced by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas largely held on Saturday after a wave of deadly air strikes across Gaza sparked by the death of an Israeli soldier shot near the border.

The soldier’s death was the first linked to Gaza violence since a 2014 war and raised fears that Israel’s response could spiral into full-out war.

But the decision of Hamas, which rules the enclave, to accept a ceasefire and not further retaliate reduced those fears for now. As has been the case with previous such truces, Israel did not confirm the deal announced by Hamas that went into effect around midnight Friday.

There was relative calm on Saturday except for one incident, with the Israeli army saying a tank struck a Hamas observation point east of Gaza City in retaliation for an attempted border infiltration in northern Gaza.

There were no reports of injuries in that strike and there was no major Israeli bombing campaign overnight or mortar fire from the Palestinian enclave towards Israel.

"With Egyptian and UN efforts, we reached an agreement to return to the previous state of calm between the (Israeli) occupation and the Palestinian factions," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement early on Saturday.

A senior Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the deal involved "the cessation of all forms of military escalation" including Israeli air strikes and Hamas mortars and rockets.

The source said that balloons and kites attached with incendiary devices, which Palestinians have been floating over the border for months to spark fires inside Israel, were not included in the agreement.

There was however one reported fire in Israel near the Gaza border on Saturday, a fire department spokesman said, although its cause was not immediately clear. Israeli politicians have been calling for a fierce response to the kites and balloons, which have caused damage amounting to millions of shekels.

Israel’s army and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to confirm a truce was reached.

On Friday, three Hamas militants were killed as air raids sent fireballs exploding into the sky over Gaza, while Israel said rockets had been fired back at its territory. A fourth Palestinian was shot dead in protests near the border.