A truce around Gaza was announced Wednesday after the death of a Palestinian hunger striker in Israeli custody triggered an exchange of rocket fires.
One Palestinian was killed and five wounded in predawn airstrikes Israel carried out in retaliation for rocket fire from Gaza, the territory's Health Ministry said.
But mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations succeeded in brokering a return to calm from 4 a.m. (1 a.m. GMT), sources in Palestinian armed groups, Islamic Jihad and Hamas told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Egypt – a peace broker between Israel and Palestinian groups in previous conflicts – corroborated the truce, though Israel did not immediately confirm any agreement.
"We managed to reach a calm with both sides responding to it from this morning," an Egyptian security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The Israeli army said the last warning sirens sounded near the Gaza border at around 5:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. GMT).
Witnesses in the blockaded territory told AFP that several rockets were fired at Israel around this time.
"One round of confrontation has ended, but the march of resistance continues and will not stop," said Tariq Salmi, a spokesperson for Islamic Jihad, in a statement.
"Our brave fighters have proven their loyalty and commitment to defending their people," he added.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh demanded that Israel return the hunger striker's body to his family.
"We stress – and as we have informed all the mediators who intervened – the necessity of handing over the body of the martyr Khader Adnan to his patient family," Haniyeh said in a statement.
Adnan, 45, from Jenin in the occupied West Bank, died early Tuesday after an 87-day hunger strike following his arrest by Israel over ties to Islamic Jihad.
A string of high-profile hunger strikes during at least 13 stints in Israeli custody had turned Adnan into a national hero, and revitalized hunger strikes as a form of protest among Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli jails.
From Tuesday morning, around 100 rockets were fired by armed groups from Gaza toward Israel, according to Islamic Jihad.
In response, the Israeli army said it carried out a number of airstrikes on Gaza early Wednesday, targeting infrastructures belonging to Hamas.
The territory's Hamas-run health ministry said a 58-year-old was killed and five wounded in a strike north of Gaza City.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell expressed concern over the violence after talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Brussels Tuesday.
He condemned recent attacks against Israelis and stressed the EU's commitment to Israel's right to defend itself.
But he also warned that "any response must be proportionate and in line with international law."
Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Adnan's widow, Randa Mousa, said she did not want to see the firing of rockets from Gaza in response to her husband's death.
"We don't want a drop of blood to be shed," she said.
Israel generally holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire from Gaza, regardless of which armed group launched it. The Islamist group has controlled the territory since ousting loyalists of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in 2007.
In August 2022, three days of fighting between Islamic Jihad and Israel left 49 Palestinians, including 19 children and 12 armed fighters, dead, according to the U.N.
