Cease-fire agreed upon
Gaza militants, Israel stop violence
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Egypt has mediated a cease-fire between Palestinian militant factions and Israel after four days of violence, an Egyptian security official said.
The official told the Associated Press a cease-fire went into effect at 1 a.m. today. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. It was not immediately clear when a formal announcement of a cease-fire would be made.
The official said that after hours of talks, the Palestinians agreed to stop launching rockets at southern Israeli cities and Israel agreed to stop targeting militants in airstrikes.
Neither Palestinian militant groups nor Israel would comment. There were no reports of violence by either side.
The fighting was triggered by Israel’s killing of a militant leader last week. Twenty-four Palestinians died, including seven on Monday, and about 1 million Israelis in rocket range have seen their lives disrupted by the threat of rocket attacks, with frequent sirens warning them to run for cover.
Earlier, Egyptian cease-fire efforts had appeared to stall.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned that Israel would keep striking those trying to harm Israeli civilians and that Israel was “ready to broaden its operation.”
Gaza militants insisted that Israel stop firing first and that it must promise to halt airstrikes aimed at killing Gaza militants for good – a guarantee Israel is unlikely to give.
Meanwhile, government officials and missile experts in Israel praised the performance of Iron Dome, an Israeli-made system designed to shoot down short-range rockets like those fired from Gaza.
Iron Dome uses cameras and radar to track incoming rockets and intercepts only those that would pose a threat to people and property, ignoring those that are expected to fall in open areas.
The military said that of 143 rockets fired since Friday, it tried to intercept 63 and succeeded in all but nine of those attempts. No Israelis have been killed in the current fighting, and property damage has been relatively minor.