Israel rejects long-term Gaza ceasefire: Turkish FM

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said that Israel rejected the proposal for a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

"We were very close to reaching a ceasefire, but Israel rejected the proposal at the last moment," Davutoğlu said after a major meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and other top diplomats who were convened on July 26 in Paris to press efforts for a long-term ceasefire in Gaza.

Kerry met with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and their counterparts from Britain, Germany, Italy, Qatar, Turkey and the European Union as a 12-hour "humanitarian" truce in Gaza entered into force on July 26.

"We all call on parties to extend the humanitarian ceasefire," France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters after the meeting.

The Netanyahu government approved a four-hour extension for the ceasefire in the afternoon, but Israeli army announced in the evening that rockets from Gaza were fired at Israel just after the 12-hour truce.

Davutoğlu said that Turkey would further increase its efforts for a long-term cease fire.
      
Meanwhile, the toll in Gaza rose above 1,000 dead, as Gazans poured into the streets to recover their dead and stock up on food supplies after the truce agreed by Israel and Hamas took hold. 

More than 100 bodies were pulled from the rubble of homes throughout the coastal enclave during the truce on July 26, the 19th day of the conflict, medics said.

Women in Beit Hanoun wailed as medics pulled three dead relatives from a home struck overnight by an Israeli air strike. Near Khan Younis, 18 members of a family died from tank shelling shortly before the truce began, the Gaza Health Ministry...