Israel Agrees to Extend Cease-Fire for 24 Hours
Israel’s top ministers decided Saturday night to extend a humanitarian halt to hostilities in the Gaza Strip for 24 hours, but said their troops would continue to operate to destroy tunnels from Gaza into its territory during Sunday’s pause.
The decision came despite continued fire from Gaza into Israel during Israel’s initial four-hour extension of a 12-hour humanitarian pause both sides had agreed to on Saturday at the request of the United Nations.
Three mortars landed in open areas near Gaza just as the original lull was expiring at 8 p.m. Before midnight, more than a dozen rockets were fired at Israel, four of them intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, issued a brief statement saying there had been no agreement on extending the lull until midnight, and Hamas later took credit for sending two rockets toward Tel Aviv.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-hamas-cease-fire.html?emc=edit_na_20140726
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