Gaza ceasefire halts fighting between Israel and Palestinians

Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza stopped firing just before dawn as an unconfirmed ceasefire appeared to take hold, suspending some of the deadliest fighting since a war in 2014.

While neither side announced an end to a three-day battle that killed 23 people in Gaza and four in Israel, both Israel and Hamas, which controls the strip, signalled an end to hostilities.

Israel’s military lifted restrictions on residents living in the south near the enclave, reopening roads and schools. Hamas’s radio station in Gaza, Al-Aqsa, reported a ceasefire.

The conflagration spread after Gaza-based gunmen shot at Israeli soldiers on Friday and Israeli forces killed two Palestinian protesters and two militants on the same day.

By Monday morning, Israeli aircraft and tanks had conducted more than 350 strikes in the strip. Militants from Hamas and the separate Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired close to 700 rockets and mortars.

Palestinian medical officials said the dead in Gaza included two pregnant women and two babies. Israel said at least two of them, an aunt and her niece, were killed by a misfired militant projectile, but did not comment on the other case.

As in previous rounds of tit-for-tat fighting, the ceasefire appeared to be a UN-backed effort mediated by Egypt. However, the latest bout seriously ratcheted up the ferocity of attacks from both sides.

Israel, which has in the past focused attacks on destroying buildings, began to direct strikes against militants and in one case, carried out a targeted assassination against a Hamas commander, Ahmed Khudari.

Israel’s bombing campaign also destroyed the Gaza office of the Turkish state-run news agency, an attack the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said was an act of “terrorism”. Israel said it had destroyed building used by Hamas.

Factions in Gaza also changed tactics, firing multiple barrages of rockets at once, meaning Israel’s Iron Dome defence system was unable to intercept them all. Many landed in towns and cities. Militants also killed a person with an anti-tank missile near the frontier.

Israel and Hamas have failed to reach a lasting deal to end regular clashes. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was criticised on Monday by a member of his own party, the Likud, for failing to deal with the crisis.

“A ceasefire, in the circumstances reached, bears no achievements for Israel,” lawmaker Gideon Sa’ar tweeted. “The timeframes between these violent attacks on Israel and its citizens are getting shorter and the terror groups in Gaza are getting stronger between them. The campaign has not been prevented, just delayed.”

The escalation appeared to end as the Islamic holy month of Ramadan began. It also came as Israel prepared to host the Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv next week.

Tensions in Gaza have increased following Israel’s lethal response to a year-long protest movement on the perimeter, killing more than 200 Palestinians with 7,000 others injured by gunfire. The rallies, backed by Hamas, had intended to ease a crippling 12-year blockade that has trapped the enclave’s population and devastated the economy.

But few concessions, such as easing restrictions on movement for money, goods and people, have been achieved. The Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said late on Sunday that Israel had not implemented policies to lessen the severity of the blockade.

“Without this, the arena will be a possible for many rounds of confrontation,” he said.

Netanyahu said on Monday: “The campaign is not over and it demands patience and sagacity. We are prepared to continue.”