BBC Online :
Hamas has offered to halt its rocket attacks if Israel stops its air raids on the Gaza Strip, the BBC understands.
A source with the Palestinian militant group said Egyptian intelligence officials had brokered a potential ceasefire, after escalating clashes.
Israel says sporadic shelling from Gaza has continued. Several rockets and mortars landed without causing harm.
There is high tension in East Jerusalem ahead of the planned funeral of a murdered Palestinian teenager.
There have already been two days of clashes there between masked Palestinians and Israeli police over the kidnap and murder of 17-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdair.
The motive for his killing has not been confirmed but there are claims it was an act of revenge for the recent murders of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank. Israeli police are investigating.
The teenager’s funeral has already been delayed, adding to the tension.
Police say they will hand the body to the family after Friday prayers, which are likely to end at about 12:30 local time (09:30 GMT).
In the past few days Israel has launched air strikes after rockets were fired from Gaza.
On Friday four rockets were fired from Gaza, the Israeli army said. One was intercepted by the Iron Dome air defence system and at least two hit open ground. Later two mortar shells also landed in open fields.
A Hamas source told the BBC that “intensive contacts” between the group and Egyptian officials “succeeded in reaching a new truce between Hamas and Israel, and that the ceasefire agreement was to be announced within hours”.
The source said Hamas was ready to halt rocket fire in return for an assurance that Israeli would stop air raids.
A senior Israeli security official told the BBC that “the ball is in Hamas’ court.
“We informed Hamas that calm will be answered with calm, and if it is not calm, they will be hit hard. The message is very clear and was delivered in a very clear manner. If they took upon themselves a unilateral ceasefire and it is calm, so be it,” the official said.
Egyptian military intelligence often provides a channel of communication between Israel and Hamas at moments of crisis.
Hamas officials now say those contacts have paved the way for a truce which has the potential to lower the political temperature after a week of sharply escalating tensions.
Hamas, as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, has been badly weakened by the Egyptian military government’s moves to crush the brotherhood at home and can’t afford a sustained escalation.
