Sunday noon, Hamas suddenly agreed to a 24-hour truce, but kept on firing rockets at Ashkelon and Israeli towns across the border. Israel earlier offered a 24-hour humanitarian truce, then backtracked after a massive Hamas rocket assault. In the past hour, reporters say the Israeli military has been holding its air and ground fire. A decision to clear up the confusion is awaited at a security cabinet session at 5 p.m. Israel time.
In interviews to US media, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu noted that Israel had accepted five huminitarian ceasefire agreements, all of which Hamas has violated including the one it itself offered Sunday. In any case, for Israel, he stressed, the only binding plan for ending Gaza hostilities is the Egyptian proposal..