A Hamas leader said Saturday the resistance movement had agreed to try anew an Egypt-brokered ceasefire with the Zionist entity, after six days of bloodshed in the beseiged Gaza Strip

A Hamas leader said Saturday the resistance movement had agreed to try anew an Egypt-brokered ceasefire with the Zionist entity, after six days of bloodshed in the beseiged Gaza Strip.

Hamas and "the Palestinian resistance factions will respect the truce as long as the [forces] of the occupation do the same and that's what we told our Egyptian brothers who demanded that we cease fire," Ayman Taha told AFP.

"The Egyptians have demanded that the [forces] of the occupation stop their aggression and have informed us that they are prepared to do so," he added.

"We told them that we shall respond to calm with calm; if the occupier stops [its attacks] there will be no further retaliation by the resistance factions."

An official close to the group said the truce would take effect from midnight (2100 GMT).

Earlier in the day Hamas threatened to call off a previous truce attempt announced on Wednesday which was unraveling, with Palestinian officials reporting three Palestinians martyred and dozens wounded in seven Israeli air strikes Saturday.

An Israeli military spokesperson said that by Saturday evening 24 rockets had slammed into southern occupied Palestinian territories from Gaza despite its Iron Dome air defense system.