http://www.news.com.

au/world/un-calls-for-israelgaza-ceasefire-as-palestinian-death-toll-
soars/story-fndir2ev-1226987082365
UN calls for Israel-Gaza ceasefire
as Palestinian death toll soars

ISRAEL deployed ground troops inside Gaza for the first time today to raid a
rocket launching site as reports come in of another 52 deaths inside the
beseiged territory.
Four Israeli soldiers were hurt in clashes during the brief incursion to destroy
a rocket launching site in northern Gaza, the military said. It said they have
returned to Israeli territory.
It was the first time that Israeli ground troops are known to have entered
Gaza in the current offensive. But the operation was carried out by special
forces and did not appear to be the beginning of a broad ground offensive.
Sderot cinema. Israelis bringing chairs 2 hilltop in sderot 2 watch latest from
Gaza. Clapping when blasts are heard.pic.twitter.com/WYZquV62O7
Allan Srensen (@allansorensen72) July 9, 2014
Last night Israel announced it would hit northern Gaza ``with great force to
prevent rocket attacks.
Israel has carried out more than 1200 air strikes in the past week to try to
diminish Hamas ability to fire rockets at Israel, and the chief military
spokesman, Brigadier General Motti Almoz, said last night there would be
more strikes, especially in northern Gaza near the Israeli border.
``We are going to attack there with great force in the next 24 hours due to a
very large concentration of Hamas efforts in that area, he said. Earlier this
morning Australian time, the military said it was ordering Palestinians in
northern Gaza to evacuate ``for their own safety.

Fireworks show ... Israeli residents, mostly from the southern Israeli city of Sderot, sit on a hill overlooking attacks on the
Gaza strip. Source: AFP
The latest round of attacks has raising the toll from Israeli strikes on Gaza to
157.
Palestinian militants also fired more rocket salvos as both sides dismissed
calls for a truce.
Israel continues to build up troops along the border ahead of a possible
invasion, warning Palestinians in northern Gaza to evacuate.
The UN Security Council unanimously urged Israel and Hamas to respect
``international humanitarian laws and stop the loss of life.
WHATS GOING ON IN GAZA: Examining the Israel-Palestine conflict
The 15-member council urged a return to ``calm, and restitution of the
November 2012 ceasefire, referring to Gazas last full-scale conflict.
Israels aerial campaign has produced ongoing strikes, including a hit on a
centre for the handicapped and another that killed two nephews of former
Hamas premier Ismail Haniya.
Rockets fired from Gaza targeted Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with some hitting
two southern West Bank cities, but so far causing no Israeli deaths.
PHOTOS: This is Israel under fire. This is our realityhttps://t.co/ec4gkGcjz7
IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 13, 2014
Early this morning an Israeli strike hit the Tuffah district in eastern Gaza City,
targeting a home and a mosque and killing 16 people, emergency services
said.
Among the wounded was police chief Tayseer al-Batsh, officials said.
Hamas unleashed a barrage of rocket fire after issuing a rare warning that it
planned to fire at Tel Aviv.
Three rockets apparently targeting Jerusalem fell short, hitting Hebron and
Bethlehem, the Israeli army and Palestinian security sources said.
Of four fired at Tel Aviv, three were intercepted above the city and another
hit open ground south of it, the army said.
Over 500 rockets have struck Israel during the latest conflict, and last night
evening two rockets fired from Lebanon hit uninhabited areas in northern
Israel, the army said.

Odd, angry shot ... This picture taken from the southern Israeli Gaza border shows rockets being fired from the Gaza strip
into Israel. Source: AFP
DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS INTENSIFY
Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisis government was in touch with both
sides, his spokesman said.
He met Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair in Cairo last night to discuss
the crisis.
Washington has said it is willing to ``leverage its relationships to bring
about a ceasefire as the chief diplomats of Britain, France, Germany and the
US meet in Vienna later today.
Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini plans to visit Israel and the
Palestinian territories from July 14-17 and Egypt on July 18, her ministry
said.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said earlier that ``no international pressure
will prevent us from striking, with all force, against the terrorist organisation
which calls for our destruction.
Hamass Haniya sounded a similar tone, saying: (Israel) is the one that
started this aggression and it must stop, because we are (simply) defending
ourselves.

Blind firing ... This picture taken from the southern Israeli Gaza border shows rockets being launched from the Gaza strip
into Israel. Source: AFP
The latest conflict unfolded after last months kidnap and murder of three
young Israelis in the occupied West Bank and the brutal revenge killing of a
Palestinian teenager.
Some 33,000 Israeli reservists have been mobilised out of 40,000 approved
by the cabinet.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said he expects a political decision
on a possible ground operation to be taken today.
UN CALLS FOR CEASEFIRE
Earlier, the UN Security Council called for a ceasefire between Israel and the
Palestinians in the Gaza strip.
All 15 members approved the statement, which calls for de-escalation of the
situation and restoration of calm. It also states a belief that the November
2012 ceasefire put in place after Operation Pillar of Defence should be
reinstituted.
The statement expresses concern about the protection of civilians under
international humanitarian law.

Concerns over civilians ... smoke billows following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on July 12, 2014. Picture: Mahmud
Hams Source: AFP
While there have been no fatalities in Israel from the continued rocket fire,
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said overnight Israeli
strikes raised the death toll there to over 125, with more than 920 wounded.
Hamas militants have been hit hard. Though the exact breakdown of
casualties remains unclear, dozens of the dead also have been civilians.
HOLY SITE TARGETED: Israel strikes Gaza mosque
The Iron Dome, a US-funded, Israel-developed rocket defence system, has
intercepted more than 130 incoming rockets, preventing any Israeli fatalities
so far.
TEL AVIV UNDER FIRE
An Israeli air strike hit a home for disabled people on Saturday, the
London Telegraphreports.
Two people were killed in the strike that hit a charitable association for the
disabled in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, while three others died in a second
attack in western Gaza City, Mr al-Kidra said.
Mr Al-Kidra said the five were killed in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood,
but had no immediate details about their identities.
Gaza militants have also fired several rockets towards Jerusalem and Tel
Aviv, the army says, with no reports of injuries, as Israel continues to bomb
the coastal enclave.
Three of the four Tel Aviv rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile
defence system, and the Jerusalem-bound rockets fell short, hitting two West
Bank cities.
Three rockets intercepted above the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. Another
rocket hit an open area near Rishon LeTzion, the army said in a statement,
after sirens and explosions were heard in Israels commercial capital.

Ghost town ... people hide in a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv on July 12, 2014 during a rocket attack by Palestinian militants
from the Gaza strip. Picture: Gali Tibbon Source: AFP
Hamas, which controls Gaza, warned in advance of the rocket fire.
Shortly after 8pm (3am AEST), its armed wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam
Brigades issued a statement read aloud in Arabic and Hebrew on Hamass
Al-Aqsa TV, pledging to fire J-80 type rockets at Tel Aviv an hour later.
Afterwards, Hamas television claimed Tel Aviv had turned into a ghost
town after the threat and that dozens of Israelis were being treated for
panic attacks.
Earlier, rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel and hit the Judea region, the
army said, using Israels term for the southern West Bank.
One rocket struck an urban area in Hebron and two other rockets struck the
area of Bethlehem, it said, giving no details of any casualties or damage.
Shortly before the rockets hit, air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem, just a few
miles north of Bethlehem, before at least two explosions were heard.
Palestinian security sources said one rocket hit an inhabited area of Hebron,
and another struck a house in the nearby village of Sair, to the south.
There were no immediate details on the third rocket.

Seeking solutions ... Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi (right) meeting with Middle East peace envoy and former
British prime minister Tony Blair at the presidential palace in Cairo, July 12, 2014. Picture: Fady Fars Source: AP

Under siege ... Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a fire at a UN storehouse after an Israeli military strike in an area
west of Gaza City on July 12, 2014. Picture: Mahmud Hams Source: AFP












http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/gaza-conflict-israel-extends-temporary-truce-as-
palestinian-toll-tops-1000/story-e6frg6so-1227002294941
Gaza conflict: Israel extends
temporary truce as Palestinian toll
tops 1000

Israeli soldiers reunite briefly with families
Funerals held for two Palestinians killed in West Bank clashes

Sixteen Killed in U.N. School Shelling in Gaza

Israel rejects Kerry's ceasefire proposal


A girl holds a picture of an injured Palestinian child at a protest in the West Bank city of
Ramallah. Source: AP
Video
Funerals held for two Palestinians kille...
Sixteen Killed in U.N. School Shelling i...
Israel rejects Kerry's ceasefire proposa...
A girl holds a picture of an injured Pal...
ISRAEL early today approved a four-hour extension of a temporary
truce in Gaza, Israeli television said, as the Palestinian death toll topped
1000 with the retrieval of dozens of bodies.
Channel 10 said the security cabinet had agreed to prolong a 12-hour truce
that went into effect on Saturday morning local time by four hours, extending
it until midnight local time (2100 GMT-0700 AEST).
The decision came after US Secretary of State John Kerry and foreign
ministers from Europe and the Middle East urged Israel and the Hamas
movement to extend the fragile truce.
We all call on parties to extend the humanitarian ceasefire, Frances
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters after meeting Mr Kerry and
foreign ministers from Britain, Germany, Italy, Qatar and Turkey, as well as
an EU representative.
We all want to obtain a lasting ceasefire as quickly as possible that
addresses both Israeli requirements in terms of security and Palestinian
requirements in terms of socio-economic development.
There was no immediate response from Hamas to either that call or to the
Israeli cabinet decision.
In Paris, riot police fired tear gas today as tensions rose at a 5000-strong pro-
Palestinian rally that went ahead in defiance of a ban, days after similar
rallies ended in violence.
The demonstration came after other protests last weekend in Paris and a
suburb town that had also initially been banned descended into chaos.
Gaza school tragedy echoes around world
Palestine declares its Day of Rage
Analysis: No military might can solve tragedy of the Strip
After the 12-hour ceasefire went into effect at 1500 GMT, medics in Gaza
began digging through the remains of hundreds of homes, and uncovered
more than 100 bodies, medical workers said.
The grim discoveries pushed the Palestinian toll in Gaza to more than 1000
as Mr Kerry met his counterparts from Europe and the Middle East and urged
a truce extension.
Israel also announced the deaths of three more soldiers, raising its military
toll to 40, along with two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker killed in Israel.
On the ground, Palestinian ambulances sped into Gaza neighbourhoods that
have been too dangerous to enter for days.
Palestinians ventured onto Gazas streets after the truce began, some eager to
check homes they had fled, others to stock up on supplies while it was safe to
do so.
In many places they found astonishing devastation: buildings levelled, entire
blocks of homes completely wiped out by Israeli bombardment.
In northern Beit Hanun, even the hospital was badly damaged by shelling,
and AFP correspondents came across the charred body of a paramedic as
emergency workers searched for more dead.
There were similar scenes in Shejaiya, where stiff bodies lay on the floor of a
room in one building, one caked in dried blood, all of them covered in dust.
East of southern Khan Yunis, residents hesitated to enter the Khuzaa
neighbourhood, saying Israeli forces remained inside the border area.
And in nearby Bani Suheila, where 20 people were killed in a single Israeli
air strike shortly before the truce began, women and children wept as they
discovered their homes destroyed.
Hamas and Israel agreed to the humanitarian window early yesterday, after
Israels security cabinet on Friday night rejected a US proposal for a seven-
day truce during which the two sides would negotiate a longer-term deal.
Speaking after the rejection, at a news conference in Cairo with UN chief
Ban Ki-moon, Mr Kerry said Israel and Hamas still have some terminology
to agree to on a ceasefire, but added they had fundamental framework on a
truce.
The two sides remain at odds over the shape of a final deal to end the fighting,
however.
Hamas says any truce must include a guaranteed end to Israels eight-year
blockade of Gaza, while in Israel there are calls for any deal to include the
demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip.
The situation in Gaza has created tensions in the West Bank, where protests
against Israels role in the conflict erupted after Friday prayers.
Troops shot dead two Palestinian teenagers early yesterday in separate
clashes in the north and south of the West Bank.
That followed the deaths of six Palestinians on Friday five shot dead by
Israeli troops and one killed by an Israeli settler.
International concern has mounted over the number of civilians killed in
Gaza, including in a Thursday attack in which at least 15 people were killed
in alleged Israeli shelling of a UN school.
The facility was sheltering some of the 100,000 Palestinians who have fled
their homes during the fighting.
Rights groups say about 80 per cent of the casualties have been civilians, and
the UN agency for children UNICEF said on Friday that 192 children had
been killed during the conflict.
The Israeli army announced the deaths of three soldiers in Gaza killed
yesterday morning before the truce began.
Rocket fire from Gaza continued yesterday before the truce, with three shot
down by antimissile defences and one hitting open ground, the army said.
It said militants fired 60 rockets into southern Israel on Friday, with another
15 intercepted.
AFP