JERUSALEM — The Israeli military lifted protective restrictions on residents in the south on Monday, while Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group reported a cease-fire deal had been reached to end the deadliest fighting between the two sides since a 2014 war.

The escalation had killed 25 on the Gaza side, both militants and civilians, while on the Israeli side four civilians were killed by incoming fire.

The Islamic Jihad militant group, which Israel accused of instigating the latest violence, confirmed that a “mutual and concurrent” truce had been brokered by Egypt. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said Egyptian mediators, along with officials from Qatar and the U.N., helped reach the deal. He said Hamas could still use “different pressuring tools” to get Israel to ease a crippling blockade of Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointedly noted that “the campaign is not over, and it requires patience and judgment.”

The intense fighting over the past two days came to a halt early Monday and residents on both sides went back to their daily routines. Schools and roads had been closed, and Israelis had been urged to remain indoors and near bomb shelters.

Palestinian militants fired hundreds of rockets into Israel over the weekend, while the Israeli military responded with airstrikes on some 350 militant targets inside Gaza.

A Hamas commander allegedly involved in transferring Iranian funds to the group was killed in an airstrike, in an apparent return to Israel’s policy of targeting militant leaders.

Trump pardons ex-Army officer in killing of prisoner

President Donald Trump has pardoned Michael Behenna, a former Army lieutenant who served five years in prison for the murder of an Iraqi prisoner in 2008.

Behenna, who was an Army Ranger in the 101st Airborne Division, was convicted of unpremeditated murder in a combat zone and sentenced to 25 years after killing Ali Mansur, a detainee and suspected al-Qaida member. Behenna, who stripped Mansur naked, interrogated him without authorization and then shot him twice, has claimed repeatedly that he was acting in self-defense.

The former soldier, now 35, fought to overturn his conviction on the grounds that the prosecution had hid evidence that would have benefited his case.

At his 2009 court-martial, Behenna said Mansur had lunged for his weapon during the interrogation.

Turkey’s electoral board voids local vote Erdogan’s foes won

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s top election authority voided the mayoral election won by an opposition candidate in Istanbul and ordered a do-over, ruling Monday in favor of a request by the president’s party to throw out the vote it narrowly lost.

Ekrem Imamoglu of the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, placed first by a slim margin in the March 31 mayoral election, defeating the ruling party candidate.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s conservative and Islamic-based Justice and Development Party, or AKP, alleged that a series of election irregularities made the results illegitimate.

Repeated ballot recounts and earlier appeals failed to keep Imamoglu from being declared the winner. He took office on April 17.

Cortizo declared winner in Panama president race

PANAMA CITY — Panama’s Electoral Court has declared opposition candidate Laurentino Cortizo the winner of the country’s presidential elections.

The court said Cortizo of the Democratic Revolutionary Party won 33%, with 95% of votes counted from Sunday’s vote.

It said Cortizo, a cattle rancher, will formally be named president-elect on Thursday.

Second-place candidate and businessman Romulo Roux of former President Ricardo Martinelli’s Democratic Change party won 31% of the vote but has so far not conceded defeat.

The campaign focused on corruption and slowing economic growth in this Central America trade and financial hub and turned into the tightest presidential contest in recent years.

Brunei backs away from death-by-stoning law

HONG KONG — The Sultan of Brunei said his country would not impose the death penalty, appearing to back away from harsh punishments including death by stoning for gay sex and adultery under strict new laws which went into effect last month.

Speaking Sunday in a televised address, his first comments since the laws went into effect amid significant international backlash, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah noted that Brunei has had a “de facto moratorium” on the death penalty under common law.

This moratorium, he said, will also be extended to cases under the new Sharia-influenced (Islamic law) penal code.

The laws were met with swift condemnation when their latest phase came into effect on April 3, implementing chilling punishments under the Islamic penal code after years of planning and preparation.

US warns China, Russia on aggression in Arctic zone

ROVANIEMI, Finland — The Trump administration warned China and Russia on Monday that the U.S. won’t stand for aggressive moves in the Arctic region, which is rapidly opening up to development and commerce as temperatures warm and sea ice melts.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a speech in Finland that the U.S. will compete for influence in the Arctic and counter attempts to make it the strategic preserve of any one or two nations.

“We’re entering a new age of strategic engagement in the Arctic, complete with new threats to Arctic interests,” Pompeo said, rejecting China’s assertion that it is a “near-Arctic nation.”

For the U.S., he said that means boosting America’s security and diplomatic presence with new military exercises and icebreakers.

In Libya: Self-styled Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Hifter, whose forces are advancing on Tripoli, is rallying his fighters on in defiance of U.N. calls for a weeklong cease-fire to coincide with the start of the holy month of Ramadan on Monday.

In released comments, Hifter said Ramadan had not been a reason to halt previous battles when he took the eastern cities of Benghazi and Derna.

The battle for the Libyan capital, which erupted in early April, has threatened to ignite a civil war on the scale of the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The fighting has killed at least 432 people so far, including combatants and civilians, according to the U.N.