Egypt brokers ceasefire deal between Israel, Palestine: The Guardian

CAIRO - 14 May 2022: Egypt, a longtime mediator in Gaza, secured the agreement of both Israel and Palestinian group Islamic Jihad to its latest ceasefire proposal, the Guardian newspaper of Sunday quoted an Egyptian security official as saying.

A ceasefire has taken effect in and around the Gaza Strip after five days of cross-border exchanges that have killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza and two people in Israel.

The truce was due to take effect at 10pm local time on Saturday, Egyptian and Palestinian sources said. But, in the final 30 minutes before, dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel, prompting renewed airstrikes.

Most of the rockets were intercepted by Israeli air defenses.

“Israel’s National Security adviser Tsahi Hanegbi … thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and expressed the State of Israel’s appreciation for Egypt’s vigorous efforts to bring about a ceasefire,” a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

A Palestinian source confirmed Islamic Jihad’s agreement.

“We want to thank Egypt for its efforts,” Islamic Jihad political department official Mohammad al-Hindi said. He has been in Cairo since the fighting erupted on Tuesday.

The US deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, in a call to the Israeli strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, “stressed the urgency of reaching a ceasefire agreement in order to prevent any further loss of civilian life”, the state department said.

Egypt had kept up its mediation effort despite repeated setbacks.

On Saturday, shrapnel from a rocket fired from Gaza hit a building site in Sdot Negev, just over the border into Israel, killing one man and wounding another. Both were day labourers from Gaza.

Islamic Jihad said its fighters were pursuing “missile strikes on Israeli cities” in revenge for Israeli “assassinations” of their commanders and strikes on populated areas.

The exchange of fire came after the Palestinian health ministry reported the death of two men aged 19 and 32 in an Israeli army raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

The current bout of violence erupted on Tuesday when Israeli strikes on Gaza killed three leading Islamic Jihad members. Three other senior figures from the Palestinian militant group were killed in later strikes.

They are among at least 33 lives lost in the fighting inside Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.