A ceasefire between Israel and militants in Gaza appears to be holding, despite the launch of several rockets hours after it took effect.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media.

The truce ended two days of intense fighting in which militants fired some 450 rockets towards Israel and Israeli aircraft carried out waves of strikes.

Early on Thursday, a family of eight were killed in an air strike in Gaza.

The fighting left 34 Palestinians dead and 111 injured in total, while 63 Israelis needed medical treatment.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said 25 of the Palestinian fatalities were militants.

The escalation began on Tuesday when a senior commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Baha Abu al-Ata, and his wife were killed in an Israeli air strike.

The Israeli prime minister said Abu al-Ata was "responsible for most of the terror attacks in the last year from the Gaza Strip" and called him a "ticking bomb".