Israel extends temporary truce as Gaza toll tops 1,000

GAZA CITY: Israel Saturday approved a four-hour extension of a temporary truce in Gaza, Israeli television said, after the Palestinian death toll topped 1,000 with the retrieval of dozens of bodies.
Channel 10 said the security cabinet had agreed to prolong a 12-hour truce that went into effect on Saturday morning by four hours, extending it until midnight local time (2100 GMT).
The decision came after US Secretary of State John Kerry and foreign ministers from Europe and the Middle East urged Israel and the Hamas movement to extend the fragile truce.
"We all call on parties to extend the humanitarian ceasefire," France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters after meeting Kerry and foreign ministers from Britain, Germany, Italy, Qatar and Turkey, as well as an EU representative.
"We all want to obtain a lasting ceasefire as quickly as possible that addresses both Israeli requirements in terms of security and Palestinian requirements in terms of socio-economic development."
There was no immediate response from Hamas to either that call or to the Israeli cabinet decision.
After the 12-hour ceasefire went into effect at 0500 GMT, medics in Gaza began digging through the remains of hundreds of homes, and uncovered more than 100 bodies, medics said.