Day 20: Netanyahu says Hamas violated its own ceasefire (LIVE BLOG)

Obama tells Netanyahu truce is "imperative"

US President Barack Obama spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday, and stressed the need for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza.

In a statement, the White House said Obama "made clear the strategic imperative of instituting an immediate, unconditional humanitarian ceasefire that ends hostilities now and leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities based on the November 2012 ceasefire agreement."

The call between the two leaders came as the Islamist Hamas movement fired more rockets at Israel Sunday, despite claims it had accepted a UN request for a 24-hour extension of a humanitarian truce.

Pictures of war don't have to be graphic to get you

Meet the man who counts bodies in Gaza

From AFP:

Inside Ashraf al-Qudra's cramped office in Shifa hospital, the phone never stops ringing, with news flooding in of the latest victims of Israel's devastating 20-day military operation.

With over 1,060 people killed and more than 6,000 wounded, counting the dead is a full-time occupation for the 41-year-old spokesman for Gaza's emergency services.

In Gaza, the average age is 17

That means 250,000 Gazans are under the age of 10.

"The idea in the looseness of a war zone that you can control your children, that they won't be somewhere where they can be hit is beyond any kind of imagination."

Reporting by Jon Snow:

Vast majority of Israelis oppose truce

86.5 percent of Israelis opposing any truce in the current climate, according to a poll.

The poll, which included answers from 500 respondents, gave two possible answers to the question of a ceasefire.

The first said it's time for a cessation of hostilities since "Israel has achieved enough, soldiers have lost their lives, and it is time to desist."

The second choice said accepting a ceasefire is a non-starter because "Hamas keeps firing rockets on Israel, not all the tunnels have been discovered and demolished, and Hamas has not been subdued."

86.5 percent chose the second option, 9.7 percent chose option one and 3.8 percent said they did not know.

Ceasefire goes up in smoke

Hamas movement continued firing rockets at Israel Sunday, despite claims it had accepted a UN request for a 24-hour extension of a humanitarian truce.

Hamas's belated acceptance of a ceasefire was announced several hours after Israel resumed a military assault after a pause of more than 24 hours.

Although Hamas said its militants would halt their fire from 1100 GMT in response to a UN request, there was no response from Israel.

Rockets continued to fall, with 11 striking Israel in the two hours after the reportedly truce went into effect, prompting a derisive response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"They are violating their own ceasefire," he told the CNN news network.

180,000 Gazans currently in UN shelters

Netanyahu blames civilian casualties on Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the ever-increasing number of civilian casualties in Gaza should be blamed on Hamas, not the Israeli army.

"We use missiles to protect our people, they use people to protect their missiles," Netanyahu said on NBC's Meet the Press.

Hamas tells Gazans not to leave, he said, while Israel urges civilians to flee the tumultuous zone. "They’re sacrificing their own people," he said.

Netanyahu said schools in Gaza are used to target the Israeli army, and that is why a UN school was hit Thursday.

Rocket fire despite ceasefire

Palestinian death toll reaches 1,050

Renewed Israeli raids on Gaza, which followed a 24-hour lull, killed nine Palestinians on Sunday, raising the overall toll to more than 1,050.

Also Sunday, the army said an Israeli soldier had been killed late Saturday by mortar fire from Gaza. His death, along with those of two other soldiers who succumbed to injuries sustained earlier in the week, raised to 43 the number of troops killed.

Another two Israeli civilians and a Thai agricultural worker have been killed by rocket fire.

The kids of conflict

Displaced Palestinian children peak from under a shop door, where their family is taking shelter in Gaza City.

Displaced Palestinian children pose for a picture in Gaza City.

Palestinians children fill plastic bottles and water containers with drinking water from a public tap in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on July 27, 2014.

Hamas backtracks, agrees to ceasefire after all

From the New York Times:

On Sunday afternoon, Hamas backtracked on its earlier rejection of the temporary cease-fire and said the “resistance groups” would agree to a 24-hour truce starting at 2 p.m. local time.

A Hamas official in Gaza released a statement saying that Hamas’s decision came “in response to the intervention of the United Nations” and out of understanding for the people of Gaza who are preparing for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that ends Ramadan. 

Israel resumes offensive

From AFP:

Israel on Sunday resumed its devastating military assault on Gaza after "incessant" rocket fire from Palestinian militants killed another soldier, ending an extended humanitarian ceasefire that was rejected by Hamas.

The renewed strikes came just 10 hours after Israel said it would observe a truce for another 24 hours, in a move which was not reciprocated by Hamas, which continued firing over the border.

Israel said it was resuming its military operations "following Hamas' incessant rocket fire throughout the humanitarian window, which was agreed upon for the welfare of the civilian population in Gaza, the IDF (army) will now resume its aerial, naval and ground activity in the Gaza Strip," a statement said.

Earlier developments

Check out earlier developments on our live blog from last week.