Hamas Agrees to Truce if Israel ‘Stops Aggression’ in Gaza

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, has agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel, it said on its website.

"In response to the Egyptian efforts, we at al-Qassam Brigades and all resistance factions declare our commitment to stop this round of confrontation as long as [Israel] stops this aggression," the website statement said.

As confrontations intensified, Hamas, which had been observing a de facto truce on rocket attacks, fired more than 90 rokets into Israel. The brigades said militants had fired 96 rockets and nine mortars.

The group, however, remained defiant, describing its attacks on Israel as the "minimal level of fire".

"Our confrontation with the enemy was kept to a minimal exchange of fire and it is best that the Israeli leaders understand that. The resistance has taught Israel a valuable lesson and it should think long and hard before this kind of aggression towards Gaza happens again," the group added.

Following the release of the statement there were unconfirmed reports of five rockets falling in Israel. Schools in Israeli towns close to Gaza were expected to stay closed and residents would remain on high alert.

The three days of bloodshed inside and outside Gaza include the deaths of two Palestinians, including 14-year-old Muamin al-Adam, in an Israeli airstrike on a farm in Zeitoun, east of Gaza. Another person, said to be the boy's father, was severely wounded.

Israeli officials said that on the same day, an Israeli missile killed a Palestinian militant identified as Ghalib Armilat and injured another militant in Rafah.

The Israeli military said the two men were part of al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad, a Salafist group which claims links to al-Qaeda. They added that the militants had been involved in an attack on two Israeli cars crossing into southern Israel from Egypt's Sinai peninsula in which one person was killed.