Israeli air strike hits Gaza

JERUSALEM, Aug 19, (agencies): Israeli air strike hits open ground in north Gaza.

Israel Tuesday ordered the military to respond after three rockets from Gaza struck the south as the two sides were observing a 24-hour truce, an Israeli official said.

Speaking to AFP, the official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "ordered the IDF to attack terror targets in Gaza" in response to the fire, which saw three rockets hit near the southern city of Beersheva that is home to some 200,000 people.

Meanwhile: Three rockets fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip struck near the southern Israeli city of Beersheva Tuesday, hours before a ceasefire was due to expire, the military said.

"Three (rockets) fell on open ground in the Beersheva area," a spokeswoman told AFP. There were no reports of casualties.

Meanwhile: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Cairo faced a new midnight deadline Tuesday to end the bloodshed in Gaza after agreeing overnight to extend an existing truce by 24 hours.

News of the last-minute extension was confirmed by both sides shortly before a five-day ceasefire was to expire at midnight local time (2100 GMT Monday).

Egyptian mediators have been pushing both sides to put a decisive end to weeks of bloodshed in Gaza, which has killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and 67 on the Israeli side.

The talks in Cairo centre on an Egyptian proposal that meets some of the Palestinian demands, such as easing Israel's eight-year blockade on Gaza, but defer debate on other thorny issues until later.

The aim is to broker a long-term arrangement to halt more than a month of bloody fighting, although both sides have largely silenced their guns since August 4 thanks to a series of temporary truces.

"We must take advantage of every minute in the next 24 hours until we reach an agreement or the cycle of violence will continue," Azzam al-Ahmad, head of the Palestinian delegation, told reporters in Cairo.

The delegations were expected to resume talks at midday (0900 GMT), an official said.

Although the back-to-back truce agreements have brought relief to millions on both sides of the border, the drawn-out waiting and the fear of a resumption of fighting was beginning to test people's patience.

The warring parties are once again faced with three choices -- either they reach a long-term agreement, accept a further extension or risk a resumption of the fighting.

On Monday evening, a senior member of the Palestinian delegation insisted there had been "progress" on agreeing a more durable ceasefire, with both sides demonstrating "a great degree of flexibility".

Hamas, which is part of the Palestinian delegation alongside Islamic Jihad, blamed Israel for drawing out the talks.