Four people were shot dead in the Egyptian city of Suez during nationwide protests against president Mohamed Mursi yesterday, the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Israel and Hamas agreed yesterday to an Egyptian- brokered ceasefire to halt an eight-day conflict that killed 162 Palestinians and five Israelis.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton met Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night and pledged to work for a truce in the Gaza Strip “in the days ahead”.

Israel bombed dozens of targets in Gaza and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.

An Israeli missile killed at least 11 Palestinian civilians including four children in Gaza, medical officials said, apparently an attack on a top militant that brought a three-storey home crashing down.

Egypt’s parliamentary speaker said the chamber would reconvene today, risking a showdown with the army after the new, Islamist president defied the generals by quashing the dissolution of the legislature they had ordered last month.

Egyptians demonstrated throughout the weekend in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square and other cities, enraged that a court had spared deposed leader Hosni Mubarak his life over the killing of protesters in the uprising that ended his three-decade rule.