- WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: 18 members of the same family killed in village near Khan Younis, southern Gaza
- Tense halt in fighting began at 6am UK time today but Israel will continue searching for tunnels
- Death toll in 19-day conflict nears 1,000 Palestinians and 40 Israelis as 85 Palestinian bodies are pulled from rubble
- Hundreds of Palestinians protested in the traditionally Arab east of Jerusalem after Muslim noon prayers yesterday
- World leaders gather in Paris for crisis talks as 1,500 riot police prepare to quell pro-Palestinian protests
- Thousands march from Israeli embassy in London to the Houses of Parliament as international anger grows
Hundreds of residents returned to survey the damage in the first few hours of today's uneasy truce, which saw at least 85 bodies of Palestinians pulled from the rubble - putting the Palestinian death toll in the 19-day conflict at 985, according to the Associated Press.
Gaza's Health Ministry said 18 relatives of the same family died in the southern Gaza Strip shortly before the truce took effect at 6am UK time. An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was checking the report.
Picking up the pieces: A Palestinian woman walks
across the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza City as residents
returned to examine damage in a 12-hour ceasefire
The long walk home: Palestinians returned this
morning to check on their homes and businesses in the northern district
of Beit Hanun, Gaza
Emotions running high: One man was overcome in
Gaza, where the bodies of at least 35 Palestinians were recovered from
rubble in the three hours after the truce
Belongings: After the brief ceasefire was
declared, a Palestinian man walks with a mattress on his back while
leaving the northern district of Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip
Moving out: A Palestinian boy carries pillows as he passes by destroyed houses during the 12-hour ceasefire
Apocalyptic: Residents picked their way over the
rubble carrying their belongings as they took advantage of the short
ceasefire to remove their belongings
Neighbours of the Al-Najar family, which the Health Ministry said had been trapped inside their house in Khuzaa village east of Khan Younis since Thursday, watched as rescue workers removed bodies from the rubble of their home using a mechanical digger.
At least 85 bodies of Palestinians were pulled from the rubble in the hours after today's humanitarian 'pause' was declared.
The
uneasy truce was agreed via the UN after U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry failed to secure a week-long halt in fighting. A
government source said Israel had rejected a week-long ceasefire, but
Kerry said no formal proposals had yet been
put forward.
World
leaders were gathering today in Paris for crisis talks as 1,500 riot
police prepared to quell pro-Palestinian protests on the streets of the
French capital.
Human
rights groups Amnesty International issued a stern rebuke to France's
socialist government for banning a protest, saying it was concerned
about 'the threat in France to the fundamental right of freedom of
peaceful assembly.'
Damage: Large parts of the Shejaiya district of
Gaza City are in ruins as Israeli forces continued their assault
overnight. A barrage of rockets were also fired into Israel
Rubble: At least 85 bodies of Palestinians were
pulled from rubble in the hours after today's humanitarian 'pause' was
declared as the death toll crept towards 1,000
A Palestinian woman reacts as she arrives to see
her destroyed house in Beit Hanoun town, which witnesses said was
heavily hit by Israeli shelling and air strikes
Horror: A Palestinian woman surveys destroyed
homes in the northern district of Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip as the
hours of the humanitarian truce ticked by
Death: The body of a Palestinian man is pinned
under the rubble of a building today following an air strike on Beit
Hanun, in the northern Gaza Strip
Funeral: Palestinians carry the body of Bassem
Abo Al-Rob, 19, in the West Bank village of Kabatyeh near Jenin city
after his death in the early hours of Saturday
Humbling: The extensive damage to the Sjijaiyah
neighbourhood of Gaza City this morning. The narrow strip of land fell
quiet for a brief spell after 8am local time
Wide destruction: The devastation in Gaza City's
Shijaiyah neighbourhood this morning. Dozens of bodies have been pulled
out of the rubble
Bernard Cazeneuve made his public appeal shortly before today's demonstration in Paris was to start. Hours earlier, the Council of State, France's top administrative body, ruled the protest ban was legal.
A court had ruled likewise, but organisers said they still planned to hold the protest.
France has Western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim populations. Two banned pro-Gaza protests last weekend, in Paris and Sarcelles, to the north, degenerated into violence and attacks on synagogues. On Wednesday, an authorized demonstration was peaceful.
Cazeneuve said chatter on social networks indicated a risk that Saturday's protest could become a 'cortege of violence.'
Thousands of activists were preparing to gather in other major cities around the world, including at the Israeli embassy in London, where police estimated at least 10,000 were due to march on Parliament.
Pressure: The leaders of seven nations demanded
an extension to the 12-hour ceasefire as marches gathered around the
world, including outside the Israeli embassy in London
March: The large group, estimated to be around
10,000-strong by police, filed past London landmarks including the Royal
Albert Hall en route to Parliament
Support: In Newcastle, protesters in support of
Palestinians carried a coffin through the streets as they called on
Israel to halt the conflict
The pro-Palestinians gathered waving
placards and shouting loud slogans in Kensington, west London, in an
echo of other Saturday protests including in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.Today foreign ministers from seven nations called for an urgent extension of the 12-hour ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said: 'All of us call on the parties to extend the military ceasefire that is currently underway.'
The gathering in Paris included the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Qatar, Turkey and the United States. An EU official also attended the meeting at the French foreign ministry.
After today's ceasefire took effect Israel's military said it would hold fire for 12 hours, but would press on with its search for tunnels used by militants.
Killing: As the Palestinian death toll in the
19-day conflict topped 900, Gaza's Health Ministry said 18 members of
the Al-Najar family died in the southern Gaza Strip shortly before
today's truce took effect. Pictured, rescue workers remove the body of
one of the family members as villagers look on near the city of Khan
Younis
Mourning: Palestinians watch as rescue workers
find the body of a member of al-Najar family, after removing it from
under the rubble of their home
Ceasfire: Rescue workers removed the body of a
member of the Al-Najar family using a digger after the brief truce was
agreed at 8am local time
Carnage: The death toll during 19-day conflict
has reached at least 900 Palestinians and 40 Israelis including 37
soldiers. Pictured: Rescue workers in southern Gaza
More bodies: Paramedics stretcher away the
charred body of an ambulance driver killed the previous night by Israeli
fire in Beit Hanun
Grief: A Palestinian woman reacts after seeing
her house destroyed in Gaza City. Hundreds of people returned to
under-fire neighbourhoods during the ceasefire
It also insisted troops 'shall respond if terrorists choose to exploit' the lull to attack Israeli soldiers or civilians. The military also said 'operational activities to locate and neutralize tunnels in the Gaza Strip will continue.'
A spokesman for Hamas said all Palestinian factions would abide by the brief truce.
Hundreds of Palestinians poured into the streets in the minutes after the truce took force, some on foot to inspect damage to their homes, and many lined up outside banks to withdraw cash and stock up on supplies.
Residents of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza strip walked through destroyed streets lined with damaged houses and entire buildings reduced to rubble. Some who had not seen each other for days embraced as they surveyed the wreckage around them.
'We lived through a night of horror. The shelling was all around our house,' said Hanan al-Zaanin, standing with four of her children outside their home in Beit Hanoun, 30,000 of whose residents had fled the area.
Brief truce: Smoke from an Israeli air strike
rises into the air over Gaza City early this morning, where a truce was
agreed from 8am local time for 12 hours
Fireball: Shortly before the truce was agreed,
another huge explosion was seen in Gaza City in the early hours. The
deadline was set at 5pm GMT
Toll: The death toll has now topped well over
900 Palestinians and 40 Israelis, including 37 soldiers and three
civilians, according to official health agencies
Death toll: Palestinians carry a body of a man
found under the rubble of a destroyed house during a 12-hour ceasefire
in Gaza City's Shijaiyah neighbourhood
Hundreds of Palestinians poured into the streets
in the minutes after the truce took force, some on foot to inspect
damage to their homes
Halt in fighting: Israeli soldiers on top of
their tanks at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. World
leaders are gathering to negotiate a long-term ceasefire
Reloading: Israeli forces inspect and load tank
ammunition this morning during the truce. Tensions are increasing to
bring an end to the bloody conflict
Israel said that two more of its soldiers were
killed in Gaza, bringing the army death toll to 37, as troops battled
militants in the north, east and south of Gaza
Lull: An Israeli soldier reads on top of his
tank near the border of Israel and Gaza today after the ceasefire was
declared. World leaders called for it to be extended
She added: 'We hope the calm lasts and they find a solution so fighting ends. We are afraid for our children's safety.'
Siham Kafarneh, 37, sat on the steps of a small grocery, weeping.
The mother-of-eight said the home she had moved into two months earlier and spent 10 years saving for had been destroyed.
'Nothing is left. Everything I have is gone,' she said.
Israeli tanks stood by as people searched through the debris for their belongings, packing blankets, furniture and clothes into taxis, trucks, rickshaws, and donkey carts before fleeing the town.
Fighting continued until the truce took hold. Militants fired a barrage of rockets out of Gaza, triggering sirens across much of southern and central Israel. No injuries were reported and the Iron Dome interceptor system shot down some missiles.
Israel said that two more of its soldiers were killed in Gaza, bringing the army death toll to 37, as troops battled militants in the north, east and south of Gaza - a tiny Mediterranean enclave that is home to 1.8million Palestinians.
Three civilians have also been killed in Israel by rockets from Gaza - the kind of attack that surged last month amid Hamas's anger at a crackdown on its activists in the West Bank, prompting the July 8 launch of the Israeli offensive.
It also announced that a soldier unaccounted for after an ambush in Gaza six days ago was definitely dead, although his body had not been recovered. Hamas said on Sunday it had captured the man but did not release a photograph of him.
Smoke rises from a vehicle destroyed by an
Israeli strike after Palestinian firefighters put out the blaze in Gaza
City in the early hours of today (Saturday)
Conflict: A member of the media walks past the
vehicle which was destroyed by an Israeli strike in Gaza City as
tensions continued to flare overnight in the region
Chaos: Smoke rises from the vehicle in the early
hours today. Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, Israeli tank shelling
reportedly killed 18 members of the same family
Mediators
hope a truce could come into force ahead of a Muslim festival that
starts early next week, but they have struggled to resolve seemingly
irreconcilable demands from Israel and Hamas-led fighters, locked in
conflict since July 8. And as diplomacy faltered, the fighting raged on.
Yesterday
Israeli undercover police were involved in street conflicts with
Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem as officers were put on high alert
for flare-ups at the city's most important mosque during Friday prayers
for the final stretch of the Ramadan Muslim holy month.
Hundreds of
Palestinians protested in the traditionally Arab east of the city after
Muslim noon prayers yesterday. A dozen protesters threw rocks and fireworks
at Israeli police, who fired stun grenades and water cannons.
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