85 bodies pulled from rubble in truce

GAZA CITY, July 26, (agencies): The bodies of at least 85 Palestinians were recovered from the rubble across the Gaza Strip in the first half of a 12-hour humanitarian truce Saturday, medics said.

Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said the 85 bodies had been brought to hospitals in north, central and southern Gaza, as well as Gaza City, but that the toll was expected to rise further still.

The grim discoveries raised the toll in Gaza on the 19th day of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group to 1,000, Qudra said.

With a fragile 12-hour humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas in place, ambulances sped along roads to neighbourhoods that have been too dangerous to enter for days.

Half-way through the truce, they had already found the bodies of 76 people in the rubble across Gaza, pushing the death toll beyond 950 Palestinians killed in the coastal enclave since the conflict began on July 8.

On the Israeli side, 37 soldiers have been killed, along with two Israeli civilians and Thai foreign worker.

Palestinians ventured onto Gaza's streets after the truce took effect, some eager to check on homes they had fled, others to stock up on food and other items while it was still safe to do so.

In northern Beit Hanun, even the hospital was badly damaged by shelling, and AFP correspondents came across the charred body of a paramedic as emergency workers combed the debris for more dead.

Trails of blood on the ground were crossed by Israeli tank tracks, and there were holes where it appeared Israeli forces had been searching for Hamas tunnels.

There were similar scenes in Shejaiya, which has been subjected to days of relentless Israeli tank fire.

Stiff bodies lay on the floor of a room in one building, one caked in dried blood, all of them covered in dust.

To the east of southern Khan Yunis, residents hesitated to enter the Khuzaa neighbourhood, saying Israeli forces remained inside the border area.

In nearly Bani Suheila, women and children wept as they returned to discover their homes destroyed.

Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said so far during the truce rescue workers had recovered 25 bodies from Shejaiya and Zaitun in eastern Gaza City, 13 more in Deir al-Balah and Nusseirat in central Gaza, and 25 in north Gaza, and 13 in the southern Rafah and Khan Yunis districts.

Hamas said it and other militant groups in Gaza had reached "national consensus" for the truce. Israel later confirmed it would observe what it called "a humanitarian window" in Gaza.

The brief lull came after US Secretary of State John Kerry's proposal for a seven-day truce during which the two sides would negotiate a longer-term deal was rejected by Israel's security cabinet on Friday night.