Fresh 72-hour truce begins in Gaza

An Israeli soldier looks at a cat lying next to his weapon near the border with the Gaza Strip on August 10, 2014. Israel has accepted a new Gaza ceasefire proposed by Egyptian mediators and will send negotiators to Cairo on Monday if the truce holds
An Israeli soldier looks at a cat lying next to his weapon near the border with the Gaza Strip on August 10, 2014. Israel has accepted a new Gaza ceasefire proposed by Egyptian mediators and will send negotiators to Cairo on Monday if the truce holds, Israeli officials said. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) - A fresh 72-hour ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect in Gaza on Monday, paving the way for talks in Egypt for a durable end to a month-long conflict that has wreaked devastating bloodshed.

The agreement, which began at 00:01 am (5.01am Singapore time), clinched days of frantic mediation to stem a firestorm of violence that has killed 1,939 Palestinians and 67 on the Israeli side since July 8.

Egypt called on Israel and the Palestinians to use the new truce to "reach a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire," after an earlier three-day truce collapsed on Friday.

Both sides said they had committed to the deal.

"Israel has accepted the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire," an Israeli official told AFP shortly after a Palestinian source confirmed accepting the initiative.

The ceasefire must lead to the lifting by Israel of its blockade of the Gaza Strip, Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal told AFP in an exclusive interview in Doha on Sunday.

"We insist on this goal," he said. "In the case of Israeli procrastination or continued aggression, Hamas is ready with other Palestinian factions to resist on the ground and politically," he added.

Hamas refused to extend that 72-hour lull when it expired last Friday and Israel accused the Islamist faction of breaching the agreement in its final hours with rocket attacks.

Veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat arrived in Cairo Sunday night for talks with Egyptian and Arab League officials on behalf of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, an airport official said.

Israel said its team would only return to Cairo once the truce went into force.

"If there is a full ceasefire on the ground the Israeli delegation will arrive in Egypt tomorrow," an Israeli government official said Sunday night.

Palestinian delegates in Cairo told reporters that they were happy for the Palestinian Authority, headed by president Mahmoud Abbas, to take over the reconstruction of Gaza and execute any agreement reached.

Israel refuses to deal with Hamas, branding it a terrorist organisation.

"The national unity government and the Palestinian Authority will take over the execution of all that will be agreed upon during the truce talks," Azzam al-Ahmed, head of Palestinian delegation, told reporters.

"We are backing the setting up of a national body to be formed by president Abbas, which will take over the reconstruction (of Gaza)," said senior Hamas official Ezzat al-Rishq.

"The president of the body should be professional, credible and one who will be accepted internationally."

Seven Gazans, including a woman and two 17-year-olds, were killed on the eve of the truce in a barrage of Israeli air strikes, and another 10 bodies were pulled from the rubble of previous strikes east of Gaza City, local medics said.

In the gap between ceasefires, warplanes hit more than 170 targets, killing at least 19 people, while the Palestinians fired 136 rockets at Israel, of which 93 hit and 13 were shot down, with the rest falling short inside Gaza, the army said.

The UN says just under three-quarters of those killed in Gaza were civilians. Around a third of the civilian victims were children.

In Deir al-Balah, angry young men bellowed slogans as they carried the bloodied body of a 17-year-old to its grave. The Israeli army described the youth as a "prominent terror operative".

"God loves martyrs! We will march on Jerusalem in our millions," chanted mourners.

Israel said it closed its Kerem Shalom crossing used to truck supplies into the southern Gaza Strip after it was struck twice by rocket fire.

"Israel will not engage in negotiations under fire," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday, warning the operation would not stop until there was a prolonged quiet.

In the West Bank, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead by Israeli troops as he played outside his home in Al-Fawwar refugee camp near the southern city of Hebron, relatives and medics said.

The army said troops had opened fire during a "violent riot" but it has opened an investigation into the circumstances of the shooting.

The resumption of fighting has put Netanyahu under increased pressure from hardliners to send ground troops back in to Gaza to topple Hamas, the de facto power in the battered Palestinian enclave.

"There is no doubt that the only thing left to do now is to overpower Hamas, clean out the territory and get out as quickly as possible," said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

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