Fighting subsides in Gaza after Hamas backs 24-hour Eid al-Fitr truce

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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/quiet-amid-gaza-ceasefire-confusion-2014727182342640379.html

Fighting has subsided in Gaza after Hamas said it backed a 24-hour humanitarian truce, but there was no sign of any comprehensive deal to end its conflict with Israel.

Hamas said on Sunday it had endorsed a call by the United Nations for a pause in the fighting in light of the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which will start on Monday.

Some firing of rockets continued after the time that Hamas had announced it would put its guns aside, while Israeli artillery guns also fired barrages into Gaza, Israeli media reported.

Nonetheless, Gaza residents said Israeli shelling and Hamas missile launches had slowly subsided through the afternoon, the Reuters news agency reported, suggesting a de facto truce might be taking shape as international efforts to broker a permanent ceasefire appeared to stall.

Israel and Hamas had agreed to a 12-hour ceasefire on Saturday to allow Palestinians to stock up on supplies and retrieve bodies from under the rubble.

Netanyahu's cabinet voted to extend the truce until midnight on Sunday at the request of the UN, but called it off when Hamas launched rockets into Israel in the morning.

Palestinian medics said at least 10 people had died in the wave of subsequent strikes that swept Gaza, including a Christian woman whose house in Gaza City was struck by an Israeli bomb.

Some 1,031 Palestinians, mainly civilians and including many children, have been killed in the 20-day conflict. A Gaza health ministry official issued revised figures of the dead, saying that 30 fewer people than thought had died in the conflict.

Israel says 43 of its soldiers have died, along with three civilians killed by rocket and mortar fire out of Gaza.