Israel and Palestinian militants are negotiating a truce in Gaza from Sunday night as proposed by Cairo, the sources said, after Israel attacked Palestinian targets over a weekend and led militants to attack their cities with longer range rockets.
An Egyptian security source said Israel had accepted the truce offer, while a Palestinian official familiar with Egyptian mediation efforts said it would take effect at 8 pm (1700 GMT).
Spokesmen for Israel and Islamic Jihad, the faction it has been fighting in Gaza since clashes broke out on Friday, acknowledged contacts with Cairo.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) admitted that attempts are being made "at the highest level" to reach a ceasefire to end the escalation of violence. "Efforts are being carried out at the highest level to reach a ceasefire in Gaza," a spokesman for the YIP said on Sunday, when three days of Israeli offensive against Gaza and rocket fire by the Jihad are completed. Islamic against Israel.
On the other hand, the Israeli digital Ynet revealed that the security establishment of the Jewish State considers that the objectives of the current offensive against Islamic Jihad have already been achieved and therefore the efforts for a ceasefire have been intensified. The same outlet also quoted a senior Israeli government official, who stressed that although nothing had yet been confirmed, contacts for a ceasefire had advanced.
Palestinian sources close to the Islamist movement Hamas, which rules de facto in Gaza, informed Efe that the group sent a delegation to Cairo to participate in talks on a possible ceasefire.
These negotiations, the sources added, were accelerated after the interruption of the operation of the power plant in the Strip, which severely impacted the humanitarian situation. In parallel with Egypt's efforts, representatives of the United Nations Organization have also been in contact with both parties to try to stop the hostilities.
The outbreak, reminiscent of the preludes to previous Gaza wars, has worried world powers. However, it has been relatively contained as Hamas, the ruling Islamist group in the Gaza Strip and a more powerful force than the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad, has so far stayed on the sidelines.
Gaza officials said 31 Palestinians, at least a third of them civilians, had been killed so far. The rockets paralyzed much of southern Israel and sent residents of cities like Tel Aviv and Ashkelon to shelters.
On Sunday morning, Islamic Jihad extended its range to fire into Jerusalem in what it described as retaliation for Israel's overnight killing of its commander in southern Gaza, the second high-ranking officer it has lost in the battles.
"The blood of the martyrs will not be wasted," Islamic Jihad said in a statement. The salvo came as religious Jews fasted in an annual commemoration of two Jerusalem temples destroyed in ancient times. Israel said its Iron Dome interceptor, whose success rate the military estimated at 97%, shot down the rockets just west of the city.
Palestinians stunned by another wave of bloodshed, after the outbreaks of war in 2008, 2012, 2014 and last year, searched through the ruins of houses to salvage furniture or documents. "Who wants a war? No one. But we also don't like to keep silent when women, children and leaders die," said a Gaza taxi driver who gave his name only as Abu Mohammad.
