Gaza ceasefire in effect after strikes

ACEASEFIRE was in effect on the Gaza Strip Sunday, drawing people back into the streets after five days of cross-border exchanges killed at least 34 Palestinians and one Israeli.

The truce got off to a rough start after the final 30 minutes running up to the expected Saturday 10:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) deadline saw a volley of fire.

Dozens of rockets were launched from Gaza towards Israel, prompting renewed air strikes, AFP correspondents in the territory said.

Most of the rockets were intercepted by Israeli air defenses.

Overnight attack leaves 13 dead in Pakistan base

MORE than a dozen people were killed in an overnight battle between Pakistan paramilitary troops and militants who stormed their base and took families hostage, the army said.

“Well equipped” fighters assaulted a Frontier Corps compound in Muslim Bagh, Balochistan province, and captured three families in a residential block, the military said.

Fighting raged from Friday evening until Saturday morning and “the complex clearance operation involved hostage rescue operation,” the InterServices Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but ethnic Baloch separatist groups have for decades waged a rebellion against the state in the southwestern province, frequently targeting security forces.

The Pakistan Taliban is also active in the region.

“The terrorists had not even spared children” in their hostagetaking, ISPR said. All six militants who breached the compound were killed, it said.

Seven “sons of the soil” – a term generally used for state security forces -- were killed but one individual was a civilian, ISPR said.

Six more people, including a woman, were wounded.

A funeral service for some of the men killed was held in Balochistan’s provincial capital Quetta on Saturday. AFP

A few more rockets were fired after 1900 GMT, followed by fresh Israeli strikes, before things appeared to calm down.

Two rockets were fired from Gaza after 11:00 p.m. (2000 GMT) with no victims, the Israeli army said. Egypt brokered the latest ceasefire, saying it had secured agreement from both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.

“Israel’s National Security Adviser

Tsahi Hanegbi... thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and expressed the State of Israel’s appreciation for Egypt’s vigorous efforts to bring about a ceasefire,” a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

Israel’s response to the Egyptian initiative means “quiet will be answered by quiet, and if Israel is attacked or threatened it will continue to do everything it needs to do in order to defend itself,” he said.

A Palestinian source confirmed Islamic Jihad’s agreement.

“We want to thank Egypt for its ef- forts,” Islamic Jihad political department official Mohammad al-Hindi told AFP. He has been in Cairo since the fighting erupted on Tuesday.

For days, life in Gaza and Israeli communities near the border has been a daily routine of air strikes and sirens warning of incoming rocket fire.

Residents in the crowded Gaza Strip cowered indoors as the fighting raged, with streets empty and only a few shops and pharmacies open.

“The whole Palestinian people are suffering,” Muhammad Muhanna, 58, told AFP in the ruins of his home. “What have we done?”