Cease-fire collapses between Israel and Gaza amid cross-border strikes

Israel has reported fresh rocket attacks from Gaza and confirmed it has attacked sites in the occupied strip after a Palestinian armed group earlier in the day said a deal to end clashes was in place.

At least four rockets were reported by the Israeli military late Thursday, hours after Israel said it carried out seven airstrikes in Gaza near the Rafah area.

Gaza-based medics told Al Jazeera three people were injured, one of them seriously, in those strikes.

Earlier Thursday a leader of Palestinian armed group Islamic Jihad said that Egypt had brokered a cease-fire aimed at ending a two-day flare-up between Israel and Palestinian armed fighters in the Gaza Strip.

"Following intensive Egyptian contacts and efforts, the agreement for calm has been restored in accordance with understandings reached in 2012 in Cairo," Khaled al-Batsh wrote on Facebook Thursday, referring to a truce that ended eight days of fighting in and around Gaza. Batsh said Islamic Jihad would hold its fire as long as Israel did the same.

The three days of cross-border attacks were sparked when Israeli soldiers killed three Islamic Jihad fighters Tuesday; fighters launched a barrage of rockets into southern Israel Wednesday. No fatalities were reported.

The Israeli military responded by carrying out strikes on some 30 sites in Gaza overnight Wednesday. No fatalities have been reported, but the Israeli military tweeted, "Direct hits were confirmed."

An Israeli official told Agence France-Presse on Thursday after Batsh's announcement that he was "not familiar" with any cease-fire arrangement, adding, "They understand that if the fire continues, the Israeli reaction will be very harsh, and the last thing the Islamic Jihad and Hamas want now is an escalation and deterioration."

At a Thursday press conference in Bethlehem, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas condemned the military escalation in and around the Gaza Strip, including the rocket fire on Israel. "We condemn all military escalation, including rockets," he said.

An unrelated incident Monday on the Jordanian border with the Israeli-controlled West Bank, in which a Palestinian-Jordanian judge, Raed Za'eiter, was killed by Israeli soldiers, has also raised regional tensions.

In response to Za'eiter's killing, Jordanian lawmakers have demanded the expulsion of Israel's ambassador to Amman. About 150 Jordanian MPs signed a statement Wednesday saying the incident proved Israel is a "racist" regime that "does not want peace."

Israel has expressed regret for the killing. Jordan is one of only two Arab countries that has diplomatic ties with Israel.

The judge was shot to death by an Israeli soldier at the Allenby Bridge crossing Monday. The circumstances of the fatal shooting remain unclear.

Israel said Za'eiter tried to grab a weapon from an Israeli soldier and shouted "Allahu akbar" before he was killed. But according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, two eyewitness statements collected by Palestinian human rights groups said the confrontation was sparked when Israeli soldiers took passengers off the bus to carry out a routine search. While they searched, the witnesses said the judge was smoking a cigarette before the Israeli soldiers told everyone to get back on the bus.

They said he insisted on finishing his cigarette, sparking an argument. The soldier then pushed him to get back on the bus. The witnesses said Za'eiter pushed back and a fight broke out, after which the judge ended up on the ground and the soldiers shot three bullets at him. He was hit by two, according to the witnesses.

Al Jazeera and wire services. Safwat al-Kahlout contributed reporting.