Hamas calls for ceasefire after Israel pounds Gaza with airstrikes

A ceasefire announced by Hamas largely held on Saturday after a wave of deadly air strikes across the Palestinian enclave sparked by the death of an Israeli soldier shot near the border. Israel did not confirm the deal announced by Gaza's Islamist rulers, which went into effect around midnight Friday reducing fears of a wider conflict.

But the Israeli army said a tank struck a Hamas observation point east of Gaza City on Saturday morning, saying it was retaliation for an attempted border infiltration in northern Gaza. There were no reports of injuries in that strike and there was no major Israeli bombing campaign overnight or mortar fire from Gaza toward Israel.

'With Egyptian and UN efforts, we reached (an agreement) to return to the previous state of calm between the (Israeli) occupation and the Palestinian factions,' Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement early Saturday.

A senior Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the deal involved 'the cessation of all forms of military escalation' including Israeli air strikes and Hamas mortars and rockets. The source said that balloons and kites attached with incendiary devices, which Palestinians have been floating over the border for months to spark fires inside Israel, were not included in the agreement.