Hamas agrees to 24-hour truce, Israel continues raid

Hamas on Sunday accepted diplomatic calls for an extension of a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza shortly after Israel said it was resuming its devastating military assault.

There was no immediate word on whether Israel would reciprocate, with a Hamas spokesman saying the movement had agreed to halt its fire from 1100 GMT in response to a request from the United Nations.

The move came just hours after Israel said it would no longer abide by a unilateral ceasefire which had been rejected out of hand by Hamas as unacceptable without a full withdrawal of Israeli armour from the war-torn Gaza Strip.

With the situation rapidly changing, there was no immediate indication that either side had halted their fire, with several loud explosions heard in Gaza City, an AFP correspondent said.

The renewed violence came after a rare 12-hour break in the hostilities on Saturday, which was respected by both sides, with world powers urging both Israel and Hamas to extend the temporary truce.

"We all call on parties to extend the humanitarian ceasefire currently in force, by 24 hours that could be renewed," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said at a Paris summit also attended by the top diplomats from the US, Britain, Germany, Italy, Qatar, Turkey and the EU.

And UN chief Ban Ki-moon also issued a statement, saying he "urgently appeals once again to all parties to declare a seven-day humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza" where the fighting has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Palestinians – mostly civilians - and 46 people – mostly soldiers - in Israel.

Nine Palestinians killed

On Saturday night, Israel's security cabinet agreed to extend the temporary truce by 24 hours, but Hamas rejected the move, firing rockets over the border, one of which killed a soldier.

But after 12 hours of holding its fire, Israel said it was resuming its operations.

Shortly afterwards, the skies over Gaza were filled with the familiar sound of explosions, as plumes of black smoke quickly rose on the horizon, an AFP correspondent in Gaza City said.

Ambulance sirens wailed as medics sprang into action, cars racing down the streets which quickly emptied of people who had ventured out to make the most of the lull.

In the ensuing four hours, nine Palestinians were killed in a series of air strikes and tank shelling, including two men who were riding a motorcycle in Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, and a Christian woman in western Gaza City, Ashraf al-Qudra said.

The violence raised the death toll in Gaza to over 1,050, while more than 6,000 people have been injured, with UN figures showing that around three-quarters of the dead were civilians.

For Israelis, the quiet skies ended late on Saturday with sirens sounding up the coastal plain after Hamas refused to renew the 12-hour lull and began firing rockets over the border, one of which killed an Israeli soldier, the army said.

His death raised to 43 the overall number of troops killed in the past nine days since the army began the ground phase of Operation Protective Edge in order to destroy a sophisticated network of tunnels leading from Gaza to Israel.

Two Israeli civilians and a Thai agricultural worker have also been killed by rocket fire.

By Sunday morning, there appeared to be little appetite in Israel to prolong the one-sided truce, with 86.5 percent of Israelis opposing any truce in the current climate, army radio said, quoting pollsters Mina Tzemah.