Ceasefire to come into effect before midnight

An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza will now go into effect at 11:30pm local time (8:30pm GMT), instead of 8pm local time as was reported earlier.

A senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement official said that his organisation had agreed to a proposal by Egypt. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Egypt will commit to working toward the release of two high-ranking Islamic Jihad officials from Israeli prison in the occupied West Bank - Bassam al-Saadi, arrested last week in Jenin, and Khalil Awawdeh, who has been on hunger strike for more than 145 days.

A ceasefire that was set to go into effect at 8pm was deferred after Israel failed to give assurances that Palestinian Islamic Jihad prisoners would be released, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. 

There was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli side.