Hamas to stop firing rockets at Israel in ‘ceasefire deal’

HAMAS said yesterday it would stop firing rockets into Israel as part of a ceasefire deal, bringing a halt to 24 hours of intense fighting which threatened to escalate into full-scale war.

There was no official confirmation of a ceasefire from the Israeli government, which said in a brief statement that the Israeli military would “continue its operations as necessary”.

An uneasy calm followed the Hamas announcement, with no new reports of either Palestinian rockets or Israeli airstrikes for the first time since fighting erupted on Monday afternoon.

The Israeli military said Hamas and other Palestinian factions fired 460 rockets and mortars during the fighting, while Israeli warplanes bombed 160 targets in Gaza.

One civilian was killed in the Israeli city of Ashkelon when his apartment building was struck by a rocket. He was identified as Mahmoud Abu Asabeh, a 48-year-old Palestinian from the occupied West Bank who was working in Israel.

Seven men were killed inside Gaza by Israeli strikes, according to the Hamas health ministry. Five of them were identified as fighters with Palestinian factions. It was not clear if the other two were civilians.

The situation began to escalate on Sunday night when a botched Israeli commando raid inside Gaza left one Israeli officer and seven Palestinian fighters dead.

The gun battle grew quickly into a larger confrontation, shattering several weeks of calm in Gaza during which Hamas and Israel appeared to be edging towards a long-term truce.

The ceasefire deal was brokered by Egypt with support from the UN, according to Hamas. Egypt has played a key role in ending several rounds of fighting between the two sides.

“The resistance will abide by the ceasefire as long as the Israeli occupation adheres to the Egyptian-brokered truce,” Hamas said in a statement.