Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip agreed to halt their attacks on southern Israel beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the request of Egypt, Palestinian media outlets reported.
News of the alleged ceasefire was accompanied by a salvo of rockets fired at the Hof Ashkelon and Sha’ar Hanegev regions of southern Israel.
One of the projectiles directly hit a home in Hof Ashkelon, causing significant damage to the building, but no injuries, according to the local government.
Israeli defense officials did not immediately comment on the reports of the alleged ceasefire.
On Monday and Tuesday, more than 400 rockets and mortar shells were fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing at least one person — a Palestinian man living in Israel with a work permit — and injuring dozens more.
It appeared to be the largest-ever number of projectiles fired at Israel from the coastal enclave in a 24-hour period, more than twice the number fired on any day of the 2014 Gaza war, according to Israeli statistics.
In response to the relentless rocket fire from Gaza, the Israeli military launched a series of ground, air and naval strikes at over 150 targets in the Strip connected to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus.
Israel’s security cabinet convened in the morning at the Defense Ministry’s Tel Aviv headquarters. The discussion continued well into the afternoon.
As rocket attacks continued throughout the day on Monday night and Tuesday, the Israeli army sent reinforcements to the south in the form of additional infantry troops, tanks and Iron Dome batteries.
The military had yet to call up significant numbers of reservists as of Tuesday morning, but IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis told the Radio Darom station that it may yet do so if the need arises. Small numbers of reserve personnel, mostly from aerial defense units, have been brought into army service, Conricus told reporters by phone.
According to the military, over 100 of the incoming projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system. Most of the rest landed in open fields outside of Israeli communities. Dozens exploded inside cities and towns throughout southern Israel, several of them directly hitting homes and apartment buildings in Ashkelon, Netivot and Sderot.
The fighting on Monday and Tuesday cast doubt over understandings previously brokered by Egypt and UN officials to reduce tensions. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had defended those understandings, saying he was doing everything possible to avoid another “unnecessary war.”
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