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Israel and Hamas Agree on 72-Hour Ceasefire

Israel and Palestinian delegations in the meantime will travel to Cairo for separate negotiations to reach a more durable ceasefire.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - A three-day ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip went into effect on Friday, and negotiators were due to travel to Cairo to discuss a longer-term solution.

The 72-hour break, the most ambitious attempt so far to end more than three weeks of fighting, began at 1:00 a.m. EDT. The truce was announced in a joint statement released by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

As Gaza Death Toll Tops 1,000, UN Calls for Immediate Cease-Fire

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the call by Hamas for a cease-fire, saying the group violated its own call for a brief stoppage in violence.

(GAZA CITY) - With more than 1,000 people killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting in New York early Monday and announced "strong support for an immediate and unconditional humanitarian cease-fire" in Gaza.

The call for a cease-fire came after Hamas and Israel began firing again at each other Sunday after a temporary cease-fire failed.

Battle in Gaza Hits Day 20 as Death Toll Passes 1,000

Rocket barrage fired toward southern and central Israel after cabinet agrees to extend humanitarian ceasefire.

(TEL AVIV) - An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed early on Sunday by a mortar shell near the Gaza border as Israel's Operation Protective Edge entered its 20th day.

Hours earlier, Israel's security cabinet voted to extend a humanitarian cease-fire that began on Saturday morning until midnight Sunday.

Palestinians Pour Into Streets to Gather Food, Dead as Truce Holds

Israel's military pledged to hold fire for 12 hours but said it would carry on searching for tunnels used by militants.

(GAZA CITY) - Palestinians in the Gaza Strip poured into the streets on Saturday to recover their dead and stock up on food supplies after a 12-hour humanitarian truce agreed by Israel and Hamas took hold on the 19th day of their conflict.

Women in the northern town of Beit Hanoun wailed as medics pulled three dead relatives from a home struck overnight by an Israeli air strike, with hospital officials saying 85 bodies had been found after the guns fell silent at 1.00 a.m.

US Urges Ceasefire Between Israelis and Palestinians as Death Toll Climbs Over 800

The urgency was spurred on Thursday by the killing of 15 people as they sheltered at a U.N. run school in the northern Gaza Strip, which local officials blamed on Israeli shelling.

(JERUSALEM ) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pressed regional leaders to nail down a Gaza ceasefire on Friday as the civilian death toll soared, and further violence loomed between Israelis and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

With Israel and Hamas-led Islamist fighters setting seemingly irreconcilable terms for a truce that mediators hope will begin by a Muslim festival next week, Kerry worked the phones from Egypt, while aides made clear his patience was waning.

Violence Spills Over to West Bank; Death Toll Nears 800

Israeli troops have killed two other Palestinians this week in smaller confrontations in the West Bank, territory Israel captured along with Gaza in a 1967 war.

(WEST BANK ) - Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinian protesters and wounded about 100 on Thursday in confrontations with several thousand people demonstrating in the occupied West Bank against a 17-day-old Israeli offensive in Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said.

The Israeli military confirmed troops had used “riot dispersal means” against protesters who threw rocks and firebombs at them and blocked a road with burning tires.

Israel Continues to Pound Gaza Strip as Kerry Arrives

The mounting civilian casualties have driven international efforts to halt the third major round of violence between Israel and Gaza since 2009.

(TEL AVIV) - Israel doesn’t plan to stop its Gaza Strip offensive as long as the Palestinian territory’s Hamas rulers continue to pose a threat, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Israel in pursuit of an elusive truce deal.

“There is no reason to stop here if Hamas continues to threaten, continues to fire,” Livni, her country’s former chief negotiator with the Palestinians, told Israel Radio.

300 Killed in Gaza as Israeli Tanks Dig In

Egypt has no plans to revise its ceasefire proposal, which Hamas has rejected, Cairo's foreign minister said on Saturday.

(GAZA CITY) - Israeli tanks and bulldozers dug in across a mile-wide strip of Gaza's eastern frontier on Saturday, and Palestinian officials said military strikes had killed more than 300 people, most of them civilians.

Israel sent in ground forces on Thursday after 10 days of air and naval barrages failed to stop rocket fire from Gaza. Gaza medical officials said the attacks from Israel on Saturday killed 33 people, mostly civilians, in Beit Hanoun, neighboring Beit Lahiya and in Khan Younis in the south.