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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.

Israel Agrees to Truce Extension; Hamas Answers by Launching Rockets

Late on Saturday, militants ignored an Israeli announcement that it would extend the truce by four hours and resumed firing rockets into Israel.

(JERUSALEM) - Israel's security cabinet approved extending the humanitarian ceasefire begun early on Saturday until midnight local time 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, an Israeli government official said.

"At the request of the United Nations, the cabinet has approved a humanitarian hiatus until tomorrow -- Sunday -- at 24:00. The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will act against any breach of the ceasefire," the official, who was not named, said in a statement.

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.

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.

US and UN Seek Peace as Gaza Death Toll Hits 500

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Cairo to try to secure an end to hostilities, a day after he was caught by an open microphone saying sarcastically that the Israeli assault was "a hell of a pinpoint operation".

(JERUSALEM) - The United States, alarmed by escalating civilian bloodshed in an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, took a direct role in efforts to secure a ceasefire on Monday, as the Palestinian death toll jumped to more than 500.

Despite growing calls for a halt to two weeks of fighting, violence raged on. Israel pounded the coastal strip, killing 28 members of a family in one strike, 11 people in an attack on a high-rise building and four in the shelling of a hospital, medics said.

Hamas Captures Israeli Soldier; Death Toll Continues to Climb

The Shifa hospital director, Naser Tattar, said 17 children, 14 women and four elderly were among 62 Palestinians killed, and about 400 people were wounded in the Israeli assault.

(JERUSALEM) - Hamas's armed wing said on Sunday it had captured an Israeli soldier, as fighting in Gaza led to the bloodiest losses in a nearly two-week military offensive, with some 100 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers killed.

The Israeli military said it was checking on the reported capture, which was announced in a Hamas television broadcast. Israeli television stations ignored the report in their extended evening programing about the offensive.

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.

Deadly Fighting in Gaza Continues as Death Toll Rises

Fawzi Barhoum said, "the resistance will confront the Israeli ground invasion and will defend the people of Gaza."

(GAZA CITY) - Deadly clashes broke out after Israeli tanks drove into Gaza and launched a ground operation that escalates the conflict with Hamas.

The incursion Thursday night follows 10 days of Israeli bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 200 people.