A Palestinian man holds up a poster depicting senior Islamic Jihad commander Taysir al-Jabari, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City, during a rally in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on August 7, 2022. (Photo by AFP)
Gaza City, August 7 (RHC)-- Palestine's Islamic Jihad movement has agreed to a truce with Israel following three days of strikes on the Gaza Strip by the regime. The movement says the Egypt-brokered truce will take effect on Sunday at 11:30 p.m. local time (20:30 GMT).
"A short while ago, the wording of the Egyptian truce agreement was reached," senior Islamic Jihad member Mohammad al-Hindi said in a statement.
Tensions have skyrocketed across the coastal sliver and the occupied territories since Friday, when the Israeli regime carried out a massacre against the Gaza City, killing as many as 24 people, including Taysir al-Jabari, a senior Islamic Jihad commander, and six children.
The regime kept up the aggression, killing 19 others, including nine children and another Islamic Jihad commander, identified as Khaled Mansour, who died as a result of the regime’s strikes targeting the city of Rafah in southern Gaza Strip. According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 300 others have also been wounded as a result of the Israeli attacks.
The Islamic Jihad responded by firing hundreds of rockets towards the occupied territories. Three Israelis have been wounded by shrapnel over the same period, while 31 others have been slightly wounded, said the regime’s emergency services.
The movement confirmed the timing of the ceasefire, but said it "reserves the right to respond to any Zionist aggression."
The escalation was the worst to involve the two sides since the regime’s last war on the enclave that took place last May, killing hundreds of Palestinians. Islamic Jihad's Hindi said the ceasefire deal "contains Egypt's commitment to work towards the release of two prisoners."
The pair were named as Bassem al-Saadi, a senior figure in the group's political wing who was recently arrested in the occupied West Bank, and Khalil Awawdeh.
