Egypt

Turkey and Qatar are forging a plan to produce a truce between Palestinian groups and Israel to end 10 days of violence in Gaza amid additional efforts from Cairo.

Meanwhile, an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his country and Hamas “have agreed on a cease-fire” that would begin on July 18, but Hamas denied the report.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has dismissed Israeli Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s accusations that Turkey and Qatar attempted to “sabotage” the Gaza cease-fire proposal drafted in Egypt.

“I have never taken the Israeli foreign minister [Lieberman] seriously,” Davutoğlu said on July 17 in a televised interview.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has accused Turkey and Qatar of sabotaging the Gaza cease-fire proposal drafted by Egypt.

An Israeli official said on Thursday there is an agreement for a comprehensive Gaza ceasefire starting on Friday.
   
In Gaza, there was no immediate confirmation from Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups that they had agreed to halt 10 days of cross-border warfare.
   

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a U.N. request to briefly halt hostilities July 17 on humanitarian grounds, after an Israeli strike killed four Palestinian children on a beach, while efforts intensify to secure a formal truce.

France said Wednesday the European Union could set up observer missions at border crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel to try to encourage a lasting truce between the two sides.
      
The proposal by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius came as an Israeli air campaign on Gaza that has killed 208 people entered its ninth day after a failed ceasefire effort.
      

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is to be sworn in Wednesday for a new term in a war-ravaged country, as other conflicts in the turbulent region hog the international community's attention.
      

A woman and a child were among three people killed in an Israeli strike on southern Gaza on Wednesday, raising the overall death toll to 208, the emergency services said.        

Israel on July 16 warned 100,000 Gazans to flee their homes, as the military intensified its nine-day air campaign after Hamas snubbed an Egyptian ceasefire effort.
      

Israel approved the Egyptian-proposed Gaza truce on July 15, minutes before it was to come into effect at 6 a.m. GMT, Israeli officials said.

They said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet had convened to vote on the deal at Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv.