WATCH ABOVE: At least eight more Palestinians died in missile fire today, bringing the total dead in Gaza to 1030. Forty-three Israeli soldiers have been killed. Paul Johnson reports.
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- UN Security Council agrees on demand for Gaza cease-fire
- Hamas declares new 24-hour truce
- Fighting resumes overnight after Hamas rejects ceasefire extension
- Israeli forces push further into Gaza in search for Hamas tunnels
- Israel agrees to extend a 12-hour cease-fire by four hours
- Scroll down to follow the latest updates in our live blog
The U.N. Security Council has agreed on a statement calling for “an immediate and unconditional humanitarian cease-fire” in the Gaza fighting between Israel and Hamas and is meeting at midnight to adopt it.
Rwanda, the current council president, announced agreement Sunday on a presidential statement which also calls on the parties “to engage in efforts to achieve a durable and fully respected cease-fire, based on the Egyptian initiative.”
The council will meet as Muslims celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
The presidential statement, obtained by The Associated Press, says the humanitarian cease-fire would allow for the delivery of urgently needed assistance. It urges Israel and Hamas “to accept and fully implement the humanitarian cease-fire into the Eid period and beyond.”
Fighting in Gaza continues despite truce
Israel and Hamas launched new attacks Sunday in the raging Gaza war, despite each side offering different truces to temporarily halt nearly three weeks of fighting ahead of a major Muslim holiday.
After initially rejecting an Israeli offer Saturday for a 24-hour truce, Hamas said Sunday it agreed to hold fire ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. But as Israel’s Cabinet met to discuss the offer and the ongoing war, rockets rained down on southern Israel and Israeli strikes could be heard in Gaza.
Each side blamed the other for scuttling the efforts.
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Hamas said that “due to the lack of commitment” by Israel, it resumed its fire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hamas showed it could not be trusted after it violated other cease-fire efforts.
“Israel is not obliged and is not going to let a terrorist organization decide when it’s convenient to fire at our cities, at our people, and when it’s not,” Netanyahu told “Fox News Sunday.”
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International diplomats had hoped a temporary lull could be expanded into a more sustainable truce to end the bloodshed. The 20-day war has killed more than 1,060 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel has lost 43 soldiers, while two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker in Israel were killed by rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza.
READ MORE: Israel agrees to extend Gaza war truce for 24 hours despite Hamas rocket fire
Israel says it launched the war on Hamas July 8 to halt relentless rocket fire. It expanded its assault over a week later, sending ground troops into the Gaza Strip to demolish Hamas’ wide network of tunnels, which Israel sees as a strategic threat.
Each side remains far apart on terms for a final cease-fire. Hamas has demanded that a crippling Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza be lifted and Israel has asked that Gaza be demilitarized.
Following Hamas’ call for a break in fighting, an Israeli airstrike killed one person in Gaza when it hit a vehicle carrying municipal workers on their way to fix water pipes, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
Police said Israeli tanks resumed firing shells on densely populated areas south of Gaza City. One shell hit an apartment building and several shells struck a building at Tal Al Hawa. Navy boats also resumed firing on the coastal side of Gaza, police said. The Israeli military did not immediately confirm that it resumed strikes.
Families in Gaza ordinarily would be busy now with preparations for the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday, with children getting new clothes, shoes and haircuts, and families visiting each other.
WATCH: Gaza civilians return to destroyed neighborhoods during truce
In the outdoor market of the Jebaliya refugee camp, vendors set up stands with clothes and shoes, but said business was slow. Hamed Abul Atta, 22, a shoe salesman, said he hadn’t made a single sale in the first three hours after opening.
Abul Atta said he and his family were staying with relatives after fleeing the Shijaiyah district of Gaza City, which has seen heavy fighting. He said a cousin and three other relatives were among dozens of people killed there last week.
“We can’t feel any joy right now,” he said when asked if he would mark the holiday.
Also after Hamas’ call for a cease-fire, a rocket fired from Gaza lightly wounded one person in Israel, police said. Sirens wailed in a number of southern Israeli towns. The Jerusalem Post reported that rockets were fired from a school and a cemetery in Gaza.
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The Israeli military said earlier it would “resume its aerial, naval and ground activity in the Gaza Strip” after rockets continued to hit Israel. It said more than 50 rockets had been fired since midnight. The military also released a video showing a rocket being fired from what it identified as a Gaza school.
Gaza residents returned to destruction during Saturday cease-fire
A 12-hour lull Saturday – agreed to by both sides following intense U.S. and United Nations mediation efforts – saw Palestinians return to neighbourhoods reduced to rubble and allowed medics to collect close to 150 bodies, Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra said.
The Israeli military says it is doing its utmost to prevent civilian casualties, including by sending evacuation warnings to residents in targeted areas, and blames Hamas for putting civilians in harm’s way.
More than 160,000 displaced Palestinians have sought shelter at dozens of U.N. schools, an eight-fold increase since the start of Israel’s ground operation more than a week ago, the U.N. said.
Hamas and other militants in Gaza have fired more than 2,400 rockets at Israel since hostilities began on July 8, many deep into the Israeli heartland and toward most of the country’s major cities.
Israeli airstrikes have destroyed hundreds of homes, including close to 500 in direct hits, according to Palestinian rights groups. Entire Gaza neighbourhoods near the border have been reduced to rubble.
READ MORE: French police fire tear gas as banned pro-Gaza protest turns violent
Before the announcement of the holiday cease-fire, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri had said any truce must include a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and that tens of thousands of displaced people must be allowed to return to their homes.
Israel’s acceptance of the cease-fire extension was premised on its soldiers remaining in Gaza to destroy the more than 30 tunnels the military says it has found. Hamas has said it will not halt fire until it wins guarantees that the border blockade, tightened by Israel and Egypt after it seized the territory in 2007, will be lifted.
Any new border arrangements for Gaza would likely give a role to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who reached a power-sharing deal earlier this year with Hamas that was harshly condemned by Israel. Egypt wants forces loyal to Abbas to be posted on the Gaza side of the border before considering opening its Rafah crossing.
Israeli police meanwhile said security forces prevented a major attack when they stopped a suspicious vehicle in the West Bank and discovered a large explosive inside. Police said the suspect was a Palestinian from the West Bank city of Ramallah in his 30s.
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Heller reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Gaza City and Yousur Alhlou in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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