As rocket attacks and Israeli attacks on the PIJ in Gaza continued, reports multiplied in the afternoon that a ceasefire was on the cards. Agence France-Presse, citing an Egyptian source, said Israel had agreed to a ceasefire. An Israeli source, however, told the Ynet news website that talks are still ongoing. Around 8 a.m., rocket sirens sounded in several communities near Jerusalem for the first time since the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Breaking Dawn against the terror group on Friday afternoon. Several missiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system near the capital, and no injuries were reported from the attack. Get The Times of Israel Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories By signing up, you agree to the terms Later in the day, PIJ said it fired a “massive” barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv and the southern city of Beersheba in response to the death of a senior commander in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday night. A house in a town in southern Israel is damaged in a rocket attack, August 7, 2022. (Eshkol Regional Council) The sirens did not sound in Tel Aviv, but in several suburbs south of it. In Beersheba, one rocket was intercepted by Iron Dome and another landed in an open field outside the city. Several more rockets were shot down in other areas of southern Israel. In Netivot, about 11 kilometers from the Strip, a rocket landed near the local train station, causing a fire. There were no injuries from the long-range attacks, officials said. Earlier in the day, at least two rockets landed near a house in Eshkol Regional Council, causing damage. Local authorities said there were power outages in some towns due to another rocket hitting power lines in the area. The defense ministry said three mortars also hit the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza. The terminal’s roof was damaged as a result of the fire and debris fell into the entrance, the ministry said. 3 mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip hit Erez Pass. The roof of the terminal was damaged as a result of the fire and debris damaged the entrance, an area used to facilitate the daily passage of thousands of Gazans who work in Israel. pic.twitter.com/AJaqSub5Z4 — Ministry of Defense (@Israel_MOD) August 7, 2022 The crossing is routinely used by thousands of Palestinians to enter Israel each day for work. However, it was closed last week amid a threat of a PIJ attack on the border and has remained closed amid the fighting. The Magen David Adom ambulance service says it has taken 28 people to hospitals since the fighting began, including two people slightly injured by rocket shrapnel, 19 after falling while running to the shelter and seven treated for stress. Prime Minister Yair Lapid toured the army’s Southern Command and the Gaza border region on Sunday afternoon, where he met with top military officials. Along with a security assessment held at the Southern Command headquarters with Defense Minister Benny Gantz, IDF Chief Avi Kohavi and other officials, the prime minister’s office said Lapid visited Sderot, where he met with the stricken city’s mayor by rockets and leaders of other neighboring municipalities. Prime Minister Yair Lapid (L) and Defense Minister Benny Gantz (2nd-L) tour the IDF’s Southern Command on August 7, 2022, amid fighting in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group. (Haim Zach/GPO) IDF data on Sunday evening put the number of rockets and mortars fired at Israel by the PIJ since Friday at over 780. According to the data, about 180 rockets landed in the Gaza Strip. In at least two cases, failed rocket launches killed Palestinian civilians. Hamas’ health ministry, meanwhile, said at least 29 people were killed in Gaza, including six children. Another 203 people were injured, it said. Smoke rises from a building after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on August 7, 2022 (SAID KATIB / AFP) Israel said many of the dead were PIJ terrorists and denied responsibility for nine deaths, which it attributed to failed PIJ rocket launches. Israel released video footage showing a failed rocket launch that it said killed seven Palestinians, four of them children, in the Jabaliya refugee camp on Saturday. Also on Sunday, Hamas’ military wing said one of its members was killed in an Israeli airstrike, marking the first official death by the terror group amid fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Hamas said Mohammed Afana from the Jabaliya refugee camp was killed amid the “continuous Zionist attack” on the Gaza Strip. Israel said two deadly blasts in Jabaliya on Saturday and Sunday were caused by misfired PIJ rockets. It was unclear if Afana was killed in one of those incidents. The Israel Defense Forces emphasized that they were only interested in targeting PIJ operatives and locations throughout the Gaza Strip, not Hamas. On Sunday, the IDF said it hit 11 PIJ rocket launchers, two mortar launchers, among other locations across the Gaza Strip. The operation in Gaza began after several days of closures and lockdowns in Israeli communities near the Strip due to the alarm of an imminent attack, with the PIJ seeking to avenge the arrest of its leader in the West Bank last Monday. Israeli leaders and military officials said the operation was launched because Islamic Jihad had refused to back down from plans to attack Israeli targets near the border. Batteries of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells, are located in southern Israel on August 6, 2022. (Jack Guez/AFP) In the first round of Israeli raids on Friday, the army killed one of PIJ’s senior commanders, Tayseer Jabari, who officials said was planning to attack Israeli civilians near the border. Jabari replaced Baha Abu al-Ata as the group’s commander in northern Gaza after the latter was killed in an Israeli strike in 2019. In another major airstrike on Saturday night, Israel killed his southern Gaza counterpart, Khaled Mansour . You are a devoted reader We are really glad that you read X Times of Israel articles last month. That’s why we started the Times of Israel ten years ago – to provide discerning readers like you with the must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world. So now we have a request. Unlike other media, we have not set up a paywall. 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