“After the resistance succeeded in confronting the [Israeli] aggression ... there was a lot of mediation in the past hours,” Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’ deputy chief in Gaza, said in a statement on Wednesday.
He added: "An agreement was reached to return to the (2014) ceasefire understandings in the Gaza Strip. The resistance factions will abide by it as long as the Occupation forces (read Israeli military forces) do the same."
Israeli tank fire and airstrikes hit Gaza on Tuesday. The Tel Aviv regime said its assault came in response to a barrage of rocket and mortar rounds fired at the occupied territories.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel’s “fierce aggression” on Gaza “indicates that the occupation does not want peace. However, we want peace and we demand peace.”
The military wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed “responsibility for the striking of military positions and Zionist settlements,” saying their strikes were in response to Israeli attacks targeting their positions in recent days.
They said in a joint statement that Israeli “crimes cannot be tolerated,” warning that “all options will be open” to them.
Late on Tuesday, Islamic Jihad spokesman Dawoud Shihab told AFP that after Egyptian mediation, a “ceasefire agreement was reached with Israel to return to calm.”
“All factions, including Hamas and Jihad, are committed to understandings for calm,” he noted.
The Israeli regime conducts regular air raids on Palestinians in Gaza under the pretext of hitting Hamas targets. The Gaza Strip has also been under an inhumane Israeli blockade since 2007.
Tel Aviv has waged three wars on the coastal enclave since 2008, including the 2014 offensive, which left more than 2,200 Palestinians dead.
