Israel, Palestinians accept midnight truce in Gaza

Israel and the Palestinians agreed to a fresh 72-hour ceasefire in Gaza Aug. 10, accepting an Egyptian invitation to resume talks to end fighting that has killed more than 2,000 people.

The ceasefire deal, which was to come into effect at one minute past midnight (2101 GMT on Aug. 10), clinched days of frantic mediation to stem a firestorm of violence that resumed after an earlier truce collapsed on Aug. 8.  "Israel has accepted the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire," an official told AFP shortly after a Palestinian source confirmed accepting the initiative.

The Egyptian foreign ministry called for the ceasefire to begin at 00:01 local time (21:01 GMT Aug. 10) "given the necessity to protect innocent blood."

It called on both sides to use the lull to "reach a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire."  Israel had bolted truce talks in Cairo on Aug. 8  when Hamas refused to extend an earlier ceasefire and begun firing rockets over the border.

More than a month of bloody fighting in and around Gaza has killed at least 1,939 Palestinians and 67 people on the Israeli side, most of them soldiers. The U.N. says just under three quarters of those killed in Gaza were civilians, and around a third of the civilian victims were children.

On the ground, eight Palestinians were killed, including a woman and two 17-year-olds, in a barrage of Israeli air strikes and 10 bodies were pulled from the rubble east of Gaza City, local medics said.

Throughout the day, Israeli warplanes hit 41 targets, including a factory in Gaza City used to make cleaning products close to the main hotel where foreign journalists are based. Militants launched 35 rockets over the border, 23 of which struck southern Israel and eight which were shot down...