Israel, Hamas agree to a 12-hour truce

GAZA/JERUSALEM: Israel and Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip have agreed to a UN-requested 12-hour humanitarian truce to begin on Saturday morning, and efforts to secure a long-term cease-fire moved ahead. Israel’s military said it would hold fire starting at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) but would continue searching for tunnels used by Hamas. A spokesman for Hamas, which is dominant in the Gaza Strip, said all Palestinian factions would abide by the brief truce. Fighting continued overnight as US Secretary of State John Kerry, on a visit to the region, has been spearheading international efforts to end 19 days of fighting. Gaza officials said five people were killed in Israeli air strikes, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 865, most of them civilians. Earlier, militants fired a barrage of rockets out of Gaza, triggering sirens across much of southern and central Israel. No injuries were reported, with the Iron Dome interceptor system knocking out many of the missiles. Israel on Friday rejected international proposals for a more permanent cease-fire, a government source said, but Kerry, speaking in Cairo, said no formal proposals had yet been put forward. The top US diplomat said there were still disagreements on the terminology, but he was confident there was a framework that would ultimately succeed and that “serious progress” had been made, although there was more work to do. REUTERS