CNN
The aftermath of a rocket attack in Bet Lahiya on May 13, 2023.
(CNN) – Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have agreed on a ceasefire, Egyptian diplomats in Gaza said on Saturday, after days of violence that have killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza and at least two people in Israel – an Israeli and a Gazan Palestinian who were killed Israel work there.
The ceasefire was due to come into effect at 10 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET), the Egyptian commission in Gaza said.
There is a “good chance” of a ceasefire with Islamic Jihad, an Israeli official told CNN. The official asked not to be identified as he was speaking about diplomatic negotiations.
Sirens wailed repeatedly in areas of Israel near the Gaza Strip on Saturday night, and the Israeli Defense Forces launched further airstrikes on targets in Gaza, minutes before the ceasefire was due to go into effect.
A CNN producer in Gaza heard that rockets continued to be fired from Gaza in the minutes after the ceasefire went into effect. Israeli forces continued to report sirens warning of fires in areas of Israel near Gaza. At least some missiles were intercepted by Israeli air defenses, live images showed.
The announcement of the agreement comes just before the end of a day of intense fighting.
A rocket fired from Gaza killed a Palestinian working in Israel and seriously injured another, Israeli health officials said on Saturday, as the cross-border fires showed little sign of easing.
The two men were working in the Negev desert in southern Israel and were hit by shrapnel.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht tweeted on Saturday that the two men are brothers.
The late Palestinian is the second death in Israel from rocket fire from Gaza since hostilities erupted on Tuesday morning.
CNN
The violence has killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza and at least two people in Israel – an Israeli woman and a Palestinian Gaza man working in Israel.
The incident came as the Israeli military shelled targets in Gaza on Saturday while Palestinian militants continued to fire rockets.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said they had carried out a series of attacks on locations in Gaza that were allegedly part of Islamic Jihad.
Israel accuses the group of plotting attacks and has killed six of its commanders since the flare-up began on Tuesday. Islamic Jihad is the second largest armed group in Gaza after Hamas.
According to the IDF, more than 1,000 rockets have been fired at Israel so far, hitting more than 250 targets in Gaza as part of its “Arrow and Shield” campaign, now in its fifth year.
Videos from Gaza showed that Saturday’s airstrikes also appeared to have hit at least two civilian homes in the northern Gaza Strip, but no casualties were reported.
When asked about the recent attacks by CNN, the IDF said that over the past 24 hours they had attacked operational residences that served as headquarters and command and control centers for the jihadist terrorists.
In its statement, the military said IDF fighter jets and planes hit mortar and rocket launch sites “which Islamic Jihad has been using to launch projectiles at Israel in recent days.”
Sirens wailed in areas of Israel near the region on Saturday as Palestinian Islamic Jihad continued to fire rockets.
CNN
A CNN video shows smoke rising in Gaza on May 13.
Clashes also erupted in the occupied West Bank on Saturday morning, killing at least two Palestinian men, Palestinian officials said.
Sa’ed Jihad Shaker Mashah, 32, and Adnan Waseem Yousef Al-Araj, 19, were shot in the head with live bullets, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. At least three other people were injured, the ministry said.
The clash occurred in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus in the northern part of the West Bank.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security agency said the IDF and Israel Border Police searched “a terrorist hideout” in the camp.
On Friday, Palestinian militants fired rockets at Jerusalem for the first time, as well as Tel Aviv and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, at the start of an operation by Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Forces called “Revenge of the Free.”