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Israel's security cabinet decided late on Saturday to extend by 24 hours a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip upon a request from the United Nations, an Israeli political source said.
He added that the ceasefire extension would come to an end at midnight on Sunday.
The website of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, meanwhile, "ed the same source as saying that Israel would continue to work against tunnels in the Gaza Strip during the new 24-hour calm.
He said the Israeli army would respond to any violation of the ceasefire.
The source said the Israeli cabinet would convene on Sunday yet again to decide on measures that will be taken in the future.
The Israeli government has not, however, officially commented on these statements.
The Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said late on Saturday that it did not approve an extension of Gaza's 12-hour humanitarian ceasefire, which came to an end a short time ago in the Palestinian enclave.
"There is no agreement on extending the ceasefire in Gaza by four hours," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.
Gaza's 12-hour U.N.-proposed humanitarian lull came to an end at 17: 00 GMT on Saturday, but the Israeli government said it was expanding it by four more hours.
The humanitarian lull came hard on the heels of intensive Israeli shelling of homes and sites in the Gaza Strip, shelling that started on July 7.
At least 1047 Palestinians have been killed – mostly civilians – and more than 5900 others injured in Israel's offensive, now in its third week.
Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, fired rocket at Israeli cities in response to relentless Israeli bombardments.
Israel's military operation, dubbed operation "Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populate Gaza Strip – which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – within the last six years.
By Abdel-Raouf Arnaout
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en - Kudüs
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