Smoke billows from a building struck during an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on August 7, 2022. - Israel bombarded Islamic Jihad positions in the Gaza Strip for a third day today as violence escalated, with 31 Palestinians killed and militants firing their first rockets at Jerusalem. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP)
Aug 7, 2022
Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza said Sunday they had agreed to a Cairo-brokered ceasefire to end three days of intense conflict with Israel that has left at least 41 Palestinians dead.
“A short while ago the wording of the Egyptian truce agreement was reached, which contains Egypt’s commitment to work towards the release of two prisoners, (Bassem) al-Saadi and (Khalil) Awawdeh,” senior Islamic Jihad member Mohammad al-Hindi said in a statement.
The Iran-backed Palestinian Jihad militant group has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in response, and the risk of the cross-border fighting turning into a full-fledged war remained so long as no truce is reached. Israel says some of the dead were killed by misfired rockets.
Gaza’s ruling Hamas group, which fought an 11-day war with Israel in May 2021, appeared to stay on the sidelines for now, possibly because it fears Israeli reprisals and undoing economic understandings with Israel, including Israeli work permits for thousands of Gaza residents, that bolster its control.
Saadi, a senior figure in Islamic Jihad’s political wing, was recently arrested in the occupied West Bank, while militant Awawdeh is also in Israeli detention.
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