CAIRO (REUTERS, AFP) - Israel and Palestinian militants have agreed to observe a truce in Gaza from Sunday (Aug 7) evening as proposed by Cairo, sources said, after a weekend-long pounding of Palestinian targets by Israel drove militants to target its cities with longer-range rockets.

An Egyptian security source said Israel had agreed to the truce offer, while a Palestinian official familiar with Egyptian mediation efforts said it would go into effect at 8pm (1am Monday Singapore time).

Spokespeople for Israel and Islamic Jihad did not confirm this, saying only that they are in contact with Cairo.

Israel and the Islamic Jihad militant group have been exchanging fire across the Gaza border since Friday.

Israel bombarded the militant group's positions in the Gaza Strip for a third day on Sunday, while the militants fired their first rockets at Jerusalem.

The violence has killed 31 Palestinians, with six children among the dead since fighting began on Friday, health authorities say.

They added that 275 people have been wounded.

The fighting is the worst in Gaza since an 11-day war last year devastated the impoverished coastal territory, which is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians.

Several buildings in the enclave have been reduced to rubble.

Israel has pressed on with an intense aerial and artillery bombardment of positions of Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed group designated as a terrorist organisation by several Western nations, with the group firing hundreds of rockets in return since Friday.

“I hear the bombing now,” Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director general of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, told AFP. “Every minute we receive injured people.”

Salmiya said medics are treating wounded people in a “very bad condition”, warning of dire shortages of medicine and fuel to run power generators.

The Israeli army has said the entire “senior leadership of the military wing of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza has been neutralised”.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid vowed on Sunday that “the operation will continue as long as necessary”.

Medics in Israel said two people have been hospitalised by shrapnel wounds stemming from rocket attacks.

‘Torn apart’

Israel said it had “irrefutable” evidence that a stray rocket fired by Islamic Jihad was responsible for the deaths of several children in Gaza’s northern Jabalia area on Saturday.

It is not immediately clear how many children were killed there.

But an AFP photographer saw six dead bodies at the local hospital including three minors.

“We came running to the place and found body parts lying on the ground... they were torn-apart children,” said Muhammad Abu Sadaa, describing the devastation in Jabalia.

The army said it had struck 139 Islamic Jihad positions, with the militants firing 470 rockets that had crossed into Israel, while another 115 rockets fired from Gaza fell inside the enclave.

Al Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad’s military wing, said it had “fired rockets” at Jerusalem for the first time in this round of violence.

Sirens wailed and explosions were heard as the army shot the projectiles down.

Amid the high tensions, Jews in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem marked the Tisha Be’av fasting day on Sunday at the Al Aqsa mosque compound, known in Judaism as the Temple Mount.

Some Palestinians shouted “God is greatest” in response, but commemorations passed off without major incident.

Israel has said it was necessary to launch a “pre-emptive” operation on Friday against Islamic Jihad, claiming the group was planning an imminent attack.

The army has killed senior leaders of Islamic Jihad in Gaza, including Taysir al-Jabari in Gaza City and Khaled Mansour in Rafah in the south.

Israel’s Lapid called the killing of Mansour an “extraordinary achievement”.

‘Killing and wounding’

Daily life in the Gaza Strip has come to a standstill, with the sole power station shut down due to a lack of fuel after Israel closed its border crossings.

Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday it only had enough fuel for its power generators to last two days before vital services would be cut.

The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA has warned of the “severe risk” to the “continuation of basic essential services”.

“Each day we wake up to child and women martyrs... there is killing and wounding and people displaced,” said Gaza City resident Abu Mohammed al-Madhoun, 56. “We hope that Israeli aggression will end”.

Civilians in southern and central Israel, meanwhile, were forced into air raid shelters, with two people hospitalised with shrapnel wounds and 13 others lightly hurt while running for safety, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.

“It’s tense, it’s frightening,” said Beverly Jamil, a resident of Ashkelon close to Gaza.

“Ashkelon’s a ghost town – it’s a holiday, kids should be out playing.”

Meanwhile, Hamas’s response to the violence remains critical, with spokesman Fawzi Barhoum offering the group’s support to Islamic Jihad on Sunday, but stopping short of saying they would take part.

“The resistance in all its military wings and factions are united in this battle,” Barhoum said.

Islamic Jihad is aligned with Hamas but often acts independently.

Hamas has fought four wars with Israel since seizing control of Gaza in 2007, including the conflict last May.

In response to media queries, a spokesperson for Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Singapore remains deeply concerned about the situation in Gaza and Israel.

"We are saddened by the loss of innocent civilian lives. We call upon all parties to cease attacks against civilian targets, de-escalate the situation and work towards a durable ceasefire," the spokesperson said. 

Meanwhile, Singaporeans in Israel are strongly advised to be on high alert and monitor the news closely, the spokesperson added. 

"They should follow instructions from the local authorities and take the necessary precautions for their personal safety." 

Singaporeans in Israel should register themselves, if not already done so, at http://eregister.mfa.gov.sg/, the spokesperson said.