New Middle East ceasefire begins today

A Gaza militant leader said today that Islamic Jihad will be watching Israel’s response to the latest attempt at a ceasefire.

Muhammed Al-Hindi, a leader of the Islamic Jihad faction, said an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire went into effect at 1am local time today (midnight Irish time).

Mr Al-Hindi said: “We are... monitoring the commitment of the occupation government to the ceasefire.”

There was no immediate Israeli government reaction.

The truce was the second attempt to end more than a week of hostilities. A ceasefire late on Sunday dissolved with rocket fire from Gaza on southern Israel and retaliatory Israeli air strikes.

Some two dozen Palestinians and one Israeli were killed.

The violence began with a militant attack which killed eight Israelis on the Egyptian border.