Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza agreed to a ceasefire early Wednesday (May 3rd), two Palestinian officials said. The truce comes after renewed tensions following the death of a Palestinian protest figure on hunger strike in an Israeli prison.

The "reciprocal and simultaneous" ceasefire, achieved through the efforts of Egyptian, Qatari and United Nations officials, went into effect at 03:30 local time (00:30 GMT), the sources told Reuters.

Israel did not immediately confirm the truce, which appears fragile.

The last warning sirens sounded in Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip at around 05:30 a.m. (02:30 GMT), the army said. According to witnesses in Gaza, several rockets were fired at Israeli soil at that time.

"This cycle of confrontation is over but the march of resistance continues and will not stop," Islamic Jihad spokesman Tariq Salmi said in a statement.

Symbol for Palestinians

"We stress, as we have told all the mediators who intervened, the need to hand over the body of martyr Khader Adnan to his family," Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement Wednesday.

Khader Adnane, 45, from the occupied West Bank began a new hunger strike as soon as he began his incarceration on 5 February and died on Tuesday. He had been imprisoned many times by Israel and had gone on several hunger strikes, becoming a symbol for Palestinians.

Since Tuesday morning, some 100 rockets have been fired by armed groups from Gaza into Israel, according to Islamic Jihad.

Overnight, the Israeli army carried out several strikes on Gaza, targeting infrastructure of the Hamas movement, which it holds responsible for all "terrorist activities" carried out in the territory under its control since 2007.

"He will see the consequences," the army said in a statement, adding that it targeted a Hamas training camp, weapons warehouse and underground tunnel.

With AFP

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