Israel and Palestinian militants halted their fire for several hours early on Thursday as efforts to reach a truce appeared to gather momentum, a day after Joe Biden called publicly for progress towards a ceasefire.
It was not immediately clear if the eight-hour quiet – the longest since the attacks began 11 days ago – was part of an agreement or a temporary lull in the violence.
The brief calm was broken later on Thursday when air-raid sirens sounded in Israel near the Gaza frontier, and Israel’s military said a fighter jet had struck a rocket launcher.
However, previous ceasefires have been preceded by similar hours-long halts in fighting, which are seen as a trust-building measure. A Hamas official had earlier said a ceasefire was in reach, and Israeli media reports suggested the military believed its “goals” had largely been met.
In the early hours of Thursday, Israel carried out more than a dozen airstrikes on Gaza, including two that destroyed two houses in the territory’s south. Medics said four people were wounded in an airstrike on the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Israel’s military said its aircraft struck what it said was a “weapons storage unit” in the Gaza City home of a Hamas official and “military infrastructure located in the residences” of other Hamas commanders, including in Khan Younis.
Credit: theguardian.com
The post Israel ease attacks in Gaza after Biden calls for de-escalation appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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