A surge in deadly violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel has petered out overnight with Palestinian officials reporting Egypt had mediated a ceasefire ending the most serious spate of cross-border clashes for months.
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The latest round of fighting erupted three days ago, peaking on Sunday when rockets and missiles from Gaza killed four civilians in Israel, and Israeli strikes killed 21 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians.
Two Palestinian officials and a TV station belonging to Hamas, Gaza's Islamist rulers, said a truce had been reached at 4.30am local time on Monday, apparently preventing the violence from broadening into a conflict neither side seemed keen on fighting.
Israeli officials did not comment on whether a truce had been reached. But the military said that protective restrictions on residents of southern Israel that were ordered when the fighting began were being lifted.
Israel's military said that more than 600 rockets and other projectiles - over 150 of them intercepted - had been fired at southern Israeli cities and villages since Friday. It said it had shelled or carried out air strikes on about 320 targets belonging to Gaza militant groups.
Rocket sirens in southern Israel, which had gone off continuously over the weekend, sending residents running for cover, did not sound on Monday and there were no reports of new air strikes in Gaza.
The violence began when a sniper from the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad fired across the fenced border at Israeli troops on routine patrol, wounding two soldiers, according to the Israeli military.
Islamic Jihad accused Israel of delaying implementation of previous understandings brokered by Egypt in an effort to end violence and ease the economic hardships of blockaded Gaza.
Some 2 million Palestinians live in Gaza, the economy of which has suffered years of Israeli and Egyptian blockades as well as recent foreign aid cuts and sanctions by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas' West Bank-based rival.
Israel says its blockade is necessary to stop weapons reaching Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew its settlers and troops from the small coastal enclave.
Australian Associated Press
