UN Security Council calls for Gaza truce

The UN Security Council has called for "an immediate and unconditional humanitarian ceasefire" in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas at an emergency meeting.

The council met just after midnight on Monday morning as Muslims started celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

The pressure for a ceasefire followed new attacks launched by Israel and Hamas on Sunday despite going back and forth over proposals for another temporary halt to nearly three weeks of fighting.

A 12-hour lull on Saturday, agreed to by both sides following intense US and UN mediation efforts, could not be sustained.

The 20-day war has killed more than 1,031 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The UN statement called on the parties to the conflict "to accept and fully implement the humanitarian ceasefire into the Eid period and beyond” and "to engage in efforts to achieve a durable and fully respected ceasefire, based on the Egyptian initiative”.

It noted "grave concern regarding the deterioration in the situation as a result of the crisis related to Gaza and the loss of civilian lives and casualties” and called for Israel and Hamas to respect international law.

US president Barack Obama, in a phone call on Sunday to Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, stated his concern at the rising number of civilian deaths and urged an immediate, unconditional ceasefire.

Saying the US backed a ceasefire plan tabled two weeks ago by Egypt, Obama stressed the importance of "ensuring Israel’s security, protecting civilians, alleviating Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and enacting a sustainable ceasefire that both allows Palestinians in Gaza to lead normal lives and addresses Gaza’s long-term development and economic needs, while strengthening the Palestinian Authority".

The weekend saw a confusing sequence of unilateral ceasefires, starting with a 12-hour lull in Israeli military action on Saturday in response to a UN call.

Hamas did not formally sign up to the ceasefire, but refrained from rocket fire for its duration. Israel later extended the ceasefire by four hours to midnight on Saturday, then said it would withhold fire for a further 24 hours until midnight on Sunday.

It resumed attacks on Sunday morning, however, in response to rocket fire from Gaza. Hamas's unilateral ceasefire announcement came shortly afterwards.

Warning sirens sounded over southern Israel, however, and the Israeli military reported that its missile defence system, Iron Dome, had shot down at least eight rockets in Be'er Sheva and Kiryat Gat. A rocket hit a house in the south, slightly injuring a woman.

In Gaza, one person was killed when a vehicle carrying workers to fix water pipes was hit in an air strike, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Shells were fired from tanks and naval boats, according to reports.

An immediate obstacle to an agreed ceasefire centres on dozens of cross-border tunnels that Hamas has constructed. Israel has insisted its forces must be allowed to continue to search and destroy the tunnels during any pause in the fighting. Hamas is unlikely to agree to a continued Israeli military presence inside Gaza.

There are also wide gaps between each side's demands concerning a longer-term ceasefire. Israel wants to see the demilitarisation of Gaza, including measures to prevent Hamas and other militant groups from rearming.

Hamas wants the seven-year siege of Gaza to be lifted, with crossings to both Israel and Egypt opened, plus the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The death toll in Gaza rose to more than 1,030 on Sunday. Unicef said 218 children had been killed. Two-thirds were under the age of 12, it added.

The Israeli Defence Forces said 43 soldiers had died. Two Israeli civilians and a Thai agricultural worker were killed in rocket attacks.