The Hamas militant group has said a ceasefire has been reached to end the latest round of fighting with Israel.

The Hamas militant group has said a ceasefire has been reached to end the latest round of fighting with Israel.

Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV channel reported late on Thursday that a ceasefire has taken hold “on the basis of mutual calm”. It said the deal was mediated by Egypt and other regional players.

A senior Hamas official said the deal would formally go into effect at midnight.

He said the agreement merely ends the latest two-day burst of violence between Israel and Hamas.

He said Egypt would continue efforts to broker a long-term ceasefire. Hamas wants an end to a decade-long Israeli-Egyptian border blockade as a condition for any long-term deal.

There was no immediate Israeli comment. </s> Palestinian resistance factions announce Egypt-brokered cease-fire with Israel in Gaza, Turkey's official Anadolu Agency reported Tuesday amid a major flare-up of violence.

Hamas and smaller armed groups announced the cease-fire in a joint statement late Tuesday.

The deal would end the heaviest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war. </s> The Hamas militant group has said a ceasefire has been reached to end the latest round of fighting with Israel.

The Hamas militant group has said a ceasefire has been reached to end the latest round of fighting with Israel.

Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV channel reported late on Thursday that a ceasefire has taken hold “on the basis of mutual calm”. It said the deal was mediated by Egypt and other regional players.

A senior Hamas official said the deal would formally go into effect at midnight.

He said the agreement merely ends the latest two-day burst of violence between Israel and Hamas.

He said Egypt would continue efforts to broker a long-term ceasefire. Hamas wants an end to a decade-long Israeli-Egyptian border blockade as a condition for any long-term deal.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied a deal had been reached. But early on Friday, the situation in Gaza appeared quiet.

The Hamas announcement came shortly after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet ordered the army to take unspecified “strong action” against Gaza militants as the military reinforced units along the border.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since the Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007. In this week’s fighting, the Palestinian health ministry said three Palestinians, including a pregnant woman and her one-year-old daughter, and a Hamas militant, were killed in separate airstrikes. Israeli officials said seven people were wounded by rocket or mortar fire on the Israeli side.

Air raid sirens warning of incoming rocket fire wailed in southern Israel overnight and throughout the day, sending families scrambling into bomb shelters, cancelling outdoor summer cultural events and forcing summer camps indoors. The Israeli air force, meanwhile, attacked targets across Gaza.

A Palestinian rocket struck the southern city of Beersheba late in the afternoon, landing in an open area. It was the first time a rocket had hit the city since the 2014 war.

Shortly after, an Israeli airstrike flattened the five-story cultural centre in the Shati refugee camp, a crowded district of Gaza City. The airstrike set off a powerful explosion and sent a huge plume of black smoke into the air, causing crowds to scream in panic. Medical officials said at least seven bystanders were wounded.

The building is home to a popular theatre and exhibits plays and other shows on a daily basis. An Egyptian-Palestinian cultural society also has an office in the building.

“The deliberate targeting of a cultural centre with airstrikes and destruction… is a barbaric act,” said Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman. He said the destruction of the Egyptian cultural office was “an Israeli attempt to sabotage” the Egyptian ceasefire efforts.

The Israeli military said the building served as a Palestinian military installation. Hamas’ interior ministry, including its secret police, has offices in an adjacent site, but those offices were not hit.

Despite the animosity, the enemies have signalled, through their contacts with Egypt, that they want to avoid another war. Reaching a deal, however, will likely require major concession on both sides.

Hamas is demanding the lifting of an Israeli-Egyptian border blockade that has devastated Gaza’s economy, while Israel wants an end to rocket fire, as well as recent border protests and launches of incendiary balloons, and the return of the remains of two dead soldiers and two Israelis believed to be alive and held by Hamas. </s> GAZA (Reuters) - Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, agreed on a truce on Thursday to end a flare-up in cross-border fighting, two Palestinian officials said.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials. A Palestinian official with knowledge of the ceasefire talks, which were mediated by Egypt, said the truce would begin at 20:45 GMT.

Israeli aircraft struck more than 150 targets in Gaza on Wednesday night and Thursday, and Palestinian militants fired scores of rockets including a long-range missile deep into Israel. </s> The latest on a fresh wave of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip (all times local):

Hamas' militant wing says undercover Israeli forces drove a civilian vehicle into the Gaza Strip and shot dead one of the group's commanders.

Hamas was providing details on a sudden, late-night burst of violence between Israel and Gaza militants Sunday that came just as the sides were taking steps that appeared to be toning down months of fighting.

In a statement late Sunday, Hamas says militants chased the car down, which prompted Israeli airstrikes that led to the deaths of at least five militants.

The Israeli military said only that there had been an exchange of fire during operational activity. It said that its rocket defense system intercepted two launches from the Gaza Strip and that air raid sirens were sounding in southern Israel.

A spokesman for Israel's Airport's Authority says some flight landings and departures have been changed at the country's international airport amid a new spasm of violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Ofer Lefler said Sunday that the runway changes were made after the fighting began. He says they would not affect the flight schedule.

It was not immediately clear what sparked Sunday's fighting. Shortly after the exchange of fire, air raid sirens sounded in southern Israel, indicating rocket fire from Gaza. Gaza militants have rockets capable of reaching into the Israeli heartland, where Ben-Gurion International Airport is located.

Sunday's exchange of fire came as Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers appeared to be making progress toward an unofficial cease-fire.

Palestinian health officials in the Gaza Strip say six militants have been killed and six have been wounded by Israeli fire in a sudden, late-night burst of fighting.

Sunday's exchange of fire came as Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers appeared to be making progress toward an unofficial cease-fire.

Israel last week allowed Qatar to deliver $15 million to Hamas, while Hamas scaled back its weekly demonstration along the Israeli border.

It was not immediately clear what sparked Sunday's fighting. Shortly after the exchange of fire, air raid sirens sounded in southern Israel, indicating rocket fire from Gaza. </s> JERUSALEM (AP) — Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers and Israel appear to be honoring a cease-fire that ended two days of an intense flare-up in violence amid efforts by neighboring Egypt to negotiate between the two sides.

Israel’s military said on Friday that no rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel overnight and it conducted no airstrikes. Israel’s government hasn’t confirmed the truce.

Hamas’s Al Aqsa TV reported late Thursday that an Egypt-brokered deal had taken hold “on the basis of mutual calm.”

Israel and Hamas have come close to serious conflict in recent weeks after four months of violence along Gaza’s border following Hamas-organized protests there.

At least 163 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 120 protesters, since then. During that time, a Gaza sniper killed an Israeli soldier. </s> Hamas, the Palestinian group which controls the Gaza Strip, has told Al Jazeera a truce has been agreed to stop the violence.

But Israeli media is suggesting the Israeli government has denied that an agreement has been reached.

A flare up in cross-border violence has seen three Palestinians killed in Israeli air raids, and Hamas rockets fired into southern Israel. </s> U.N.- and Egyptian-mediated talks on a deal to tamp down tensions between Israel and the Gaza Strip are in "advanced stages", a senior member of the Palestinian enclave's dominant Islamist Hamas group said on Wednesday.

GAZA/SDEROT, Israel: Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, agreed on a truce on Thursday, two Palestinian officials said, an understanding that would end an escalation in fighting that has drawn mutual threats of war.

There was no formal comment from Israel, but an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity denied a cease-fire had been reached. Israel rarely acknowledges reaching any such agreement with Hamas, a group it designates as a terrorist organization and with which it has fought three wars in the past decade.

A surge in cross-border rockets and air strikes in recent weeks have prompted the United Nations and Egypt to try to broker a truce to prevent another all-out conflict.

On Wednesday night and Thursday, Israeli aircraft struck more than 150 targets in Gaza and Palestinian militants fired scores of rockets including a long-range missile deep into Israel, escalating fighting despite the ongoing truce talks.

"Egyptian efforts managed to restore calm between Palestinian factions and Israel that will end the current escalation," a Palestinian official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said. "Palestinian factions will respect calm as long as Israel does," he told Reuters.

A second Palestinian official with knowledge of the talks said the cease-fire would begin at 2045 GMT.

Abu Mujahed, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committee, a smaller faction in Gaza, said on his Facebook page: “Upon Egyptian and international efforts, a ceasefire between Palestinian resistance began conditional on the commitment of the occupation.”

Hours earlier, after the long-range Palestinian missile attack - the first of its kind since a 2014 war, Israeli air strikes had resumed after a short lull, flattening a multi-storey building that the Israeli military described as a Hamas headquarters.

A pregnant Palestinian woman and her 18-month-old child were killed in the Israeli attacks overnight on Wednesday, as was a Hamas militant, Gaza medical officials said. Hundreds of people took part in the funeral for the woman and child.

The Israeli military said seven people were wounded by Palestinian rockets and mortars that hit southern Israel.

Ambulance sirens echoed through the night in Gaza, where families huddled at home as powerful explosions thundered through the strip. Across the border rocket warning sirens sounded almost non-stop from sunset on Wednesday in Israeli towns and villages where residents sheltered in bunkers.

The Israeli military said its aircraft had struck more than 150 Hamas targets overnight, while more than 180 Palestinian rockets and mortars hit southern Israel.

Twenty-five miles from the border, air raid sirens sounded in Israel's main southern city, Beersheba.

Israeli Army Radio said Palestinian militants had fired a Grad missile capable of reaching Israel's heartland. Police said they found its remnants in an open area on the outskirts of the city of 200,000 people and that no one was hurt.

Israel responded by hitting the multi-storey building, first with small bombs apparently so that people would evacuate, then flattening it with a huge blast that shook the city and raised clouds of dust and smoke.

Residents said the building had served mainly as a cultural centre. Local health officials said 18 bystanders were wounded by the blast. Hamas denied using the facility.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet late into the night on Thursday. A statement issued by his office before reports a truce had been reached said the forum instructed the military to "keep acting with force against the terrorists".

The U.S. State Department condemned the launching of missile attacks into Israel.

"We’ve seen reports that 180 or so rocket attacks have taken place, shot from Gaza into Israel, and we fully support Israel’s right to defend itself and to take actions to prevent provocations of that nature," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

Egypt and the United Nations have been trying to mediate a comprehensive cease-fire to prevent an escalation in fighting and to ease the deep economic hardship in Gaza, a narrow strip of land that is home to 2 million Palestinians.

Israel captured Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war but withdrew in 2005, while holding onto most of the separate West Bank, where Palestinians have limited self-rule.

For more than a decade Gaza has been controlled by Hamas under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has collapsed its economy, creating what the World Bank has described as a humanitarian crisis with shortages of water, electricity and medicine.

Israel says it has no choice but to enforce its blockade to defend itself against Hamas, which calls for Israel's destruction and has used Gaza as a base for missile attacks.

Yuval Steinitz, a member of Netanyahu's security cabinet, told Israel Radio earlier that Israel was "not eager for war" but would make no concessions to Hamas.

U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov said the United Nations had engaged with Egypt in an "unprecedented effort" to avoid serious conflict, but "the situation can rapidly deteriorate with devastating consequences for all people". </s> The Palestinian group Islamic Jihad says it has agreed to stop firing rockets towards Israel after talks with an Egyptian delegation.

The announcement on Saturday came hours after Israel launched air raids hitting more than 80 locations in the besieged Gaza Strip after it said rockets were fired from there into southern Israel.

"We announce a ceasefire with Israel after Egyptian contacts with us," Dawoud Shihab, Islamic Jihad spokesperson, told Anadolu Agency.

He added the group "will be committed to the deal as long as Israel is committed to".

Khaled al-Batsh, a top official of the group, told The Associated Press news agency on Saturday that it was grateful to Egypt for brokering the agreement "to restore calm to the Gaza Strip".

"The Egyptians thankfully intervened and exerted huge efforts between the resistance [factions] in Gaza and the Zionist [Israeli] occupation," Batsh said.

"The Egyptian efforts led to understandings to restore calm to the Gaza Strip. We appreciate the Egyptian endeavour and hope for all kinds of [Israeli] aggression to stop."

Israel did not immediately respond, and past ceasefires in the conflict have not always stuck.

Egyptian mediators have been attempting to negotiate a truce between Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Israel.

The Islamic Jihad movement, which was founded in the late 1970s, is much smaller than Hamas and maintains that Palestine, with its borders marked from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea, is Islamic land and it is religiously prohibited to compromise or surrender any of it.

Its military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, became active during the 1987 Intifada by launching operations against Israeli military and non-military targets.

Earlier on Saturday, an Israeli military spokesperson said 34 rockets had been fired at Israel throughout the night.

Israel's Iron Dome rocket-defence system reportedly intercepted 13 rockets, two of which landed in Gaza and the remainder fell in open spaces in southern Israel.

In response, the Israeli military said it struck about 80 sites across Gaza by early Saturday morning, including a security headquarters building.

Among the targets was Hamas' new headquarters for the General Security Services, the military said.

Health officials in Gaza said nine Palestinians were wounded in one of the Israeli attacks and a hospital was badly damaged.

No Israelis were reported injured from the rockets.

Hamas has disavowed the recent rocket attacks and blamed fringe groups bent on sabotaging United Nations and Egyptian efforts to broker a long-term truce.

But Israel has said it holds Hamas responsible for any rocket fire regardless of who launched it.

Hamas has been pushing for the end of an 11-year siege on Gaza, imposed by Israel and Egypt, that has trapped more than two million Palestinians, and left residents with limited access to water and electricity.
Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV reports that a cease-fire is reached to end the latest round of fighting with Israel.