Israel accepts Gaza truce but warns Hamas as rockets hit

Israel accepted an Egyptian proposal to hold fire on July 15 after a week-long campaign in Gaza, but warned Hamas it would hit back even harder if the rocket fire does not stop.
      
In an early-morning vote, Israel's security cabinet said it would accept an Egyptian ceasefire which went into force at 0600 GMT, despite Hamas rejecting the initiative.
      
But the calm was short-lived, with sirens sending tens of thousands running for cover along Israel's Mediterranean coast as militants fired rockets at the densely-populated plain.
      
The army said one was even fired at the port city of Haifa, 165 kilometres (102 miles) to the north, although there was no confirmation of anything landing there.
      
The truce proposal, which Cairo laid out late Monday, won US support as the death toll in Gaza soared to 192 after a week of intensive bombardment by the Israeli air force.
      
But the Islamist Hamas movement, whose militants have fired more than 1,000 rockets, ruled out any end to the fighting without a full agreement.
      
And tensions rose along Israel's other frontiers, with three rockets hitting in and around the southern resort city of Eilat overnight after another fired from Lebanon struck just outside the northern coastal town of Nahariya, the army said.
      
A rocket fired from the Syrian Golan also struck the Israeli-occupied sector, prompting the air force to launch a pre-dawn strike, killing four, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
      
As the violence resumed, with 35 rockets striking Israel since the 0600 GMT deadline, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hamas the Jewish state would not hesitate resume its...