Alarm sirens wailed again and again over the weekend in Israel, and people sought protection from possible rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.

The areas bordering the coastal strip were particularly affected.

However, individual rockets flew to the south of the city of Tel Aviv or just before Jerusalem.

Christian Meier

Political correspondent for the Middle East and Northeast Africa.

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Most landed in uninhabited areas or were intercepted by the Israeli anti-missile defense system: an army spokesman said on Sunday morning that the "Iron Dome" was shot down at around 97 percent.

That would be the highest value achieved in a conflict so far.

Some of the muffled explosions of the Iron Dome could also be heard in Tel Aviv.

By that time, about 780 rockets had been fired at Israel since Friday night.

The militant "Movement of Islamic Jihad in Palestine" (PIJ) reacted to Friday's Israeli air strikes, which the government and army justified as a "preventive attack".

PIJ attacks on Israel were imminent, army spokesman Richard Hecht said hours after Operation Dawn began.

An end is probably in sight soon

Airstrikes also continued through the weekend.

In addition to rocket launchers, weapons depots, military posts and tunnels, the Israeli army also focused on the military leadership of "Islamic Jihad".

The opening blow on Friday was aimed at Taisir al-Jabari, the PIJ commander in the north of the Gaza Strip.

He was killed by rocket attacks in a multi-storey house.

Then, on Saturday night, a warplane fired rockets at Khaled Mansour, the commander of the PIJ's Southern Gaza Division, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip.

Israel accuses both of having planned or carried out numerous attacks on Israel.

The army says the killing of PIJ leaders has "significantly compromised" the organization's tactical and strategic capabilities.

The PIJ, on the other hand, announced on Sunday afternoon that the missiles used so far represent "only a small part of what we have prepared".

In a message, a spokesman for the Islamists called on Palestinians living in the West Bank and Israel to join the fight against Israel.

At this point, however, intensive negotiations were already taking place behind the scenes about the cessation of hostilities.

According to a proposal by Egypt, which mediates in the conflict between Israel and the PIJ and Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, the ceasefire should begin on Sunday evening.

Israel agreed to the proposal, a response from the PIJ was still pending in the afternoon.

Irrespective of this, there were already indications over the weekend that the most recent round of conflict between Israel and militant Islamists in the Gaza Strip would be over sooner than the previous one: the eleven-day long Gaza War in May 2021. Unlike in the case of the massive escalation from Over the past year, during which several conflicts have combined and escalated over days and weeks, this armed conflict came about almost out of nowhere.

On the night of Tuesday, Israeli security forces in the West Bank arrested the local leader of the PIJ.

Another member of the organization was killed when a gun battle broke out while on duty in the Jenin refugee camp.

The PIJ then threatened retaliation.

Israel immediately imposed far-reaching restrictions on the areas around the Gaza Strip: roads were closed, rail traffic was suspended and exit restrictions were imposed on some places.

At the same time, Israel increased its military presence around the Gaza Strip.

The reason given was concern about possible retaliatory attacks by the PIJ.