The Israeli measures, along with restrictions by neighbouring Egypt, have tightly controlled the movement of people and goods in and out of the territory.

There were no reports of damage or injuries on the Israeli side, but it was the heaviest barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip in several months.

Fatah and Hamas remain bitter enemies, and repeated attempts to reconcile have failed.

Before the truce was announced, a pre-dawn Israeli airstrike killed eight members of the same family in Gaza.

In a statement, the Israeli military said its warplanes targeted military compounds affiliated with Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Iranian officials are furious that millions of dollars' worth of the Islamic Republic's assets in Canada have been seized, sold and used to compensate victims of terrorist groups.

The sales were made under a law designating Iran a state sponsor of terrorism.

Gaza militants on Sunday intensified a wave of rocket fire into southern Israel, striking towns and cities and killing at least three people in one of the bloodiest rounds of fighting since the 2014 war.

The fighting, the most intense between the sides in months, came as leaders from Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, and the smaller armed faction Islamic Jihad, were in Cairo for talks with Egyptian mediators aimed at preventing a fraying cease-fire from collapsing altogether.

No casualties were reported and no Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the rockets, though they appeared to be in retaliation for the deaths of the protesters.