Israel presses on in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday declared what was meant to be a 72-hour-long humanitarian ceasefire to be over.

Asked during a press conference whether the ceasefire was over, IDF spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said: "Yes. We are continuing our activities on the ground."

He also accused Hamas or other Palestinian militants of breaking the truce by firing at Israeli forces in southern Gaza and that an IDF soldier had gone missing in the fighting.

"Our initial indications suggest a soldier has been abducted by terrorists in an incident where terrorists breached the ceasefire," Lerner said.

Hamas blames 'occupation'

Hamas, in turn, accused the IDF of breaking the truce.

"It is the occupation which violated the ceasefire. The Palestinian resistance acted based on... the right to self defense [and] to stop the massacres of our people," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement, according to the AFP news agency.

While just how the shooting started a few hours after the ceasefire came into force, could not be independently confirmed, news agencies first reported Israeli shelling near the southern Gaza town of Rafah, in which Palestinian officials said at least 35 people had been killed and dozens of others wounded.

In Israel, air raid sirens blared, and the IDF said via Twitter that eight rockets and mortars had been fired at the Jewish state, with one being intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system and the other seven hitting open areas.

The ceasefire had been announced simultaneously early on Friday, at United Nations headquarters in New York and in New Delhi early on Friday, where US Secretary of State John Kerry has been meeting with officials from India's new government.

Working towards a more durable truce

At a hastily called press conference, Kerry warned that while he was pleased that the parties to the conflict had agreed to the truce, the conflict was far from over.

"This is not a time for congratulations and joy, or anything except a serious determination, a focus, by everybody to try to figure out the road ahead," Kerry said shortly after the deal was struck. "This is a respite. It's a moment of opportunity, not an end; it's not a solution. It's the opportunity to find the solution."

To this end, Egypt has called on the Israelis and the Palestinians, including Hamas, to enter talks in Cairo aimed at reaching a more durable ceasefire. After Israel declared the ceasefire over, though, the AFP cited an Egyptian official who said the planned negotiations had been "postponed."

More than 1,450 Palestinians, most of them civilians have been killed since Israel launched its offensive on Gaza on July 8. Around 60 Israelis have been killed, most of them soldiers.

pfd/kms (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)