Israel And Hamas accept 72-hour truce to begin early Friday

GAZA CITY:  US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed a 72-hour truce. After 25 days of bloody confrontation, both countries are due  to begin ceasefire at 0500 GMT Friday.

It has been confirmed by Egypt recently that Israeli and Palestinian representatives, including from Hamas, but the Israeli forces would remain inside Gaza.Earlier Thursday, Israel swore not to accept any ceasefire that did not permit troops to remain destroying tunnels used by militants to attack Israel.

The announcement came as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza hit 1,442 where two thirds of these are civilians, superior that of a massive three-week Israeli operation over New Year 2009, medics said. This action draws criticism almost every part of the world.

The truce was a joint US-UN initiative and will give civilians “a much needed reprieve,” Kerry said.

“This is a respite, a moment of opportunity — not an end. It’s not a solution,” he warned, saying Israel would still be allowed to carry out “defensive” operations to destroy the tunnels.

The offer was accepted by Hamas and Israel. The announcement came after the UN Security Council stated “grave disappointment” that repeated calls for a ceasefire had not been observed, and needed there to be a sequence of humanitarian interruptions to ease situations for noncombatants trapped in the war-torn area.

Despite the growing international concern over the civilian death toll in Gaza, Washington said it had agreed to refill Israel’s diminishing weaponries supplies.

The declaration came as the White House said there was little doubt that Israeli weaponry was the source of a “totally indefensible” strike on a UN school in northern Gaza that killed 16 people on Wednesday.The school was protecting over 3,000 Palestinians made homeless by the harsh fighting.