GAZA/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israel and Hamas will cease fire across the Gaza Strip border as of 2 a.m. on Friday (2300 GMT Thursday), a Hamas official and Israeli media said, bringing a potentially tenuous halt to the fiercest fighting in decades.

The reports came a day after US President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek de-escalation, and amid mediation bids by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations. A Hamas official told Reuters the ceasefire would be "mutual and simultaneous".

Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approved the truce on the basis of what one official reportedly called "quiet in exchange for quiet". Israeli cabinet spokesmen had no immediate comment.

Rocket attacks by Hamas and allied Islamic Jihad had resumed after an eight-hour pause on Thursday, as Israel continued shelling.

Since the fighting began on May 10, health officials in Gaza say 232 Palestinians, including 65 children and 39 women, have been killed and more than 1,900 wounded in aerial bombardments. Israel says it has killed at least 160 “combatants” in Gaza.

Authorities put the death toll in Israel at 12.