Israel and the Islamic Jihad movement agreed to a truce in Gaza after three days of intense conflict, an Egyptian source said Sunday, as the death toll continued to rise following airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave.
The negotiations raise hopes that Egypt could help broker a deal to end the worst fighting in Gaza since an 11-day war last year devastated the impoverished coastal territory, home to some 2.3 million Palestinians.
Since Friday, Israel has carried out heavy aerial and artillery bombardments in Gaza.
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has said officials were talking with both sides "around the clock" to ease the violence. A security source in Cairo said that Israel "has accepted" a cease-fire, adding that Cairo was waiting for the Palestinian response.
A source from Islamic Jihad said that "discussions are underway at the highest levels towards calm," but warned that "the resistance will not stop if the occupation's (Israel) aggression and crimes do not stop."
Egyptian mediators have proposed a truce to Israel's attacks on Gaza that would take effect at 10 p.m. (7 p.m. GMT) on Sunday, an Egyptian security source said.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 41 Palestinians, including 10 children since the bombardment began three days ago, amid an escalation of tensions following the killing of a senior member of Islamic Jihad just before the weekend.
Ten children were among those killed in the latest "Israeli aggression" since Friday, and 265 people have been wounded, said health authorities in the enclave where several buildings were reduced to rubble.
The fighting is the worst in Gaza since a war last year devastated the besieged coastal territory, home to some 2.3 million Palestinians, and forced Israelis to seek shelter from rockets.
The Israeli army has said the entire "senior leadership of the military wing of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza has been neutralized," and Prime Minister Yair Lapid vowed Sunday that "the operation will continue as long as necessary."
Israel has maintained an illegal blockade on the impoverished enclave since 2007, the year Hamas took power.
In early May, tensions in Israel and Palestine flared into the worst disturbances since 2017 when Israeli riot police clashed with large crowds of Palestinians on the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Nightly unrest since then at the Al-Aqsa compound in occupied East Jerusalem left more than 700 Palestinians wounded, drawing international calls for de-escalation and sharp rebukes from across the Muslim world.
Tensions in the area reached an all-time high in May.
The situation in occupied Palestine was so dire that a senior official from the United Nations warned that the two countries were "heading towards a full-scale war."
