Palestinians hope cease-fire would end the deadliest fighting since 2014

A cease-fire agreement was clinched between Palestinians and Israelis on Monday after a deadly surge in violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel over the weekend, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing media reports.

Egypt brokered an agreement to cease hostilities from 4:30 am local time, said an official from Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the strip. Delivering the same message was a spokesperson for Hamas's ally, its allied group Islamic Jihad, on condition of anonymity, Agence France-Presse reported.

Gaza officials confirmed that a deal was reached on Monday, but Israel had not confirmed the truce until press time. However, reports said emergency measures have been lifted in southern Israel, signaling a deal had been reached to end the fighting between the two sides.

The agreement has appeared to end the most severe fighting between the Israeli military and Gaza militants since a 2014 conflict, which lasted seven weeks and killed dozens of Israeli soldiers and several civilians. It also left more than 2,000 people dead on the Palestinian side, including hundreds of civilians and militants, Xinhua reported.

In the latest fighting, which erupted over the weekend, Gaza militants fired hundreds of rockets into southern Israel, while the Israeli military responded with airstrikes on about 250 militant targets inside Gaza, including weapons storage, attack tunnels, and rocket launching and production facilities, Xinhua said.

Palestinian medical officials reported 23 deaths, including at least nine militants as well as two pregnant women and two babies. Four Israeli civilians were also killed, according to The Associated Press.

In a statement, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the conflict "in the strongest terms".

"He urges all parties to exercise maximum restraint, immediately de-escalate and return to the understandings of the past few months," a statement said. The European Union also called for rocket fire to "stop immediately" on Sunday.

Trump supports Israel

US President Donald Trump said the United States fully supported Israel's stance and called for an end to the Palestinian attacks, warning such actions would bring Palestinian "nothing but more misery".

"Once again, Israel faces a barrage of deadly rocket attacks by terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. We support Israel 100% in its defense of its citizens. ... To the Gazan people - these terrorist acts against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery. END the violence and work toward peace - it can happen!" he said on Sunday in a message on Twitter.

The terms of the latest cease-fire were not known, but recent ceasefires have been short-lived.

According to AFP, Israeli military and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have fought three wars since 2008, and the escalation brought them to the brink of another.

Wang Jin, a research fellow at the Syria Research Center of China's Northwest University, said despite the fear of a "fourth war" arising, the confrontations between the two sides in recent years has been "manageable", with most of the conflicts halted by a cease-fire for political purposes. In his opinion, the latest round of fighting between the two is "unlikely to turn into a major war".

Speaking at a weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to "continue its massive strikes on terror elements" in Gaza.

"Hamas bears the responsibility not only for its own attacks and actions but also for the actions of Islamic Jihad, and it is paying a very heavy price for this," Netanyahu said.

However, Wang said Netanyahu's statement is more likely to be a response to Israeli's domestic anger over the attacks and a verbal threat to the Gaza militants. Wang noted, the upturn in violence also comes as Israel is preparing to mark its Memorial Day and Independence Day next week.

"Netanyahu would much prefer those events to occur in a state of calm rather than one of open conflict," he added.

Agencies and China Daily