Hamas, Israel agree on Gaza ceasefire

July 21, 2018 08:57

A day after an Israeli soldier was killed at the Gaza Strip, Israel and Hamas on Saturday announced a ceasefire ending hours-long Israeli strikes across the border.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum took to his Twitter handle and said, 'With Egyptian and UN efforts, [an agreement] was reached to return to the previous situation of a ceasefire between the occupation and Palestinian factions.'

Hamas is the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza and has been waging a war with Israel since its founding in 1987.

On late Friday evening, the Israel Defence Forces announced that their soldier was killed after being shot at in the Gaza Strip, The Times of Israel reported.

'Today, an IDF combat soldier was killed during operational activity near the southern Gaza Strip. During the incident, a terrorist squad shot at IDF troops and the IDF soldier was severely injured. He later succumbed to his wounds,' it said in a statement.

Following this, the Israeli air force launched airstrikes at Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip.

An IDF spokesperson wrote on Twitter, "The IDF struck 60 sites in 3 Hamas battalion compounds. The targets included weapon manufacturing sites, a shaft to a tunnel network, a factory used for underground infrastructure manufacturing, a UAV warehouse, military operations room, training facilities, and observation posts."

The Palestinian health ministry previously stated that four of its nationals were killed by Israeli forces near the Gaza-Israel buffer zone on Friday.

The four Palestinians were killed in two separate incidents, as per the report.

Since March 30, Israeli forces have killed over 150 Palestinians and wounded more than 13,000 people. -- ANI

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