Un Chief Confirms Gaza Ceasefire Will Continue: Turkish Fm

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon confirmed that the Gaza ceasefire, which started at 1100 GMT, would last for 24 hours.



"We hope that the ceasefire will not be broken and that it will be extended again," Davutoglu told reporters on Sunday in the central Anatolian province of Konya.



"The 24-hour Gaza ceasefire is a 'glimmer of hope'" he said, adding that this would allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.



Davutoglu said that 17 tons of medical aid were ready and available in Turkey and that negotiations were still ongoing in order to send them to Gaza.



However, Israeli paper Haaretz "ed an unnamed senior official as saying that Israel had rejected the "UN and Hamas proposal for a humanitarian pause in fighting in the Gaza Strip."



The Israeli government has yet to announce its official statement on the proposal.



Earlier in the day, Hamas said that Palestinian resistance factions had accepted a U.N. request for a 24-hour humanitarian truce.



According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 1062 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since July 7 in what Israel describes as a military operation aimed at halting rocket fire from Gaza. On the Israeli side, at least 43 soldiers have been killed, according to official figures.



The offensive, dubbed operation "Protective Edge," is Israel's third major offensive against the densely-populated Gaza Strip – which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – within the last six years.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Konya