Pictures – Gaza breathes sigh of relief on first day of truce
The Gaza Strip was divided in the early hours of Monday, following calm, after the ceasefire agreement between Islamic Jihad and Israel came into effect.
After three days of shelling, a ceasefire agreement sponsored by Cairo succeeded in halting the fierce confrontations between the two parties. It entered into force last night, at 11:30 local time, to end the bloodshed among Palestinians, after more than 40 people were killed in the Gaza Strip.
The days of escalation were clear of the destruction of buildings, but the joy of the residents at the ceasefire was prevalent this morning, amid the beginning of the return to normal life, after the paralysis the streets of the Strip had been experiencing for days.
The Israeli authorities announced today, Monday, the decision to reopen the crossings with the Gaza Strip, starting from 9 a.m., to restore life to the streets of the wounded city.
Earlier on Sunday, Jihad announced its acceptance of the truce agreement in the form of the Egyptian declaration, hours after Israel announced its approval of it.
This comes after the total number of people killed as a result of the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, 44 people, including 15 children and 4 women, and the number of injured reached 360, according to the latest statistics of the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid welcomed the Egyptian efforts that led to the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Abbas said: “President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s continuous positions in support of the Palestinian people and their just cause.”
“These efforts contribute to calming the situation and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people as a result of this aggression, whether in Jerusalem, Gaza or the rest of the Palestinian territories,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s office confirmed that the ceasefire will take effect at 11:30 p.m. local time (Monday night), thanking Egypt for its efforts to complete the agreement.
“In the event of a ceasefire violation, Israel reserves the right to respond with force,” the statement said.
From last Friday until the truce came into effect, Israel carried out air and heavy artillery strikes mainly targeting positions in Gaza of the Islamic Jihad movement, which responded by firing hundreds of rockets.
The confrontation broke out after more than a year of calm following the arrest of an Islamic Jihad leader by Israel, which then carried out strikes on the movement’s leadership and positions in what it said was a preemptive strike against a possible response.
