Deadly shelling only hours into 72 hours Gaza truce

Israeli shelling killed eight people in Gaza on Friday just hours into a three-day truce, medics said, as a diplomatic push for a more durable end to the bloodshed gained pace.

The skies over Gaza initially fell silent after the humanitarian truce came into effect at 0500 GMT, the latest and longest of several agreed since the conflict broke out on July 8.

It gave a brief respite to residents of the battered strip, after 25 days of violence that killed 1,459 on the Palestinian side, mostly civilians, and 61 soldiers and three civilians on the Israeli side.

US Secretary of State John Kerry had said earlier that once the ceasefire was under way, Israeli and Palestinian representatives, including from Hamas, would begin talks in Cairo on a more durable truce.

 

Source: AFP