CAIRO: Egypt s state-owned news agency says Hamas and Israel have agreed on a truce which is to begin on Thursday.
The MENA agency cites an unnamed high-level Egyptian official as saying that both sides have agreed on the first phase of an Egyptian package to end the violence in the coastal strip.
It says the first phase is a mutual and simultaneous calm in the Gaza Strip which will start 6 am Thursday.
Egypt has long been trying to broker a ceasefire that will stop rocket-firing by the Palestinian fighters against Israel, in exchange for Israel halting it attacks on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Hamas officials in Gaza had earlier said there could be a ceasefire as early as Thursday.
