Gaza truce collapses under new wave of violence

A three-day humanitarian truce in Gaza collapsed only hours after it began Aug.1  amid a deadly new wave of violence and the apparent capture by Hamas of an Israeli soldier.

Intensive shelling killed dozens of people in southern Gaza hours into the short-lived truce, with Hamas accusing Israel of breaking the ceasefire and the Jewish state saying it was responding to rocket fire.

The skies over Gaza fell silent after the ceasefire announced overnight by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the longest one agreed upon of several since the conflict began on July 8.

Starting from 8 a.m. (0500 GMT,) it gave brief respite to people in the battered strip from fighting that has killed nearly 1,500 on the Palestinian side, mostly civilians, and 63 Israeli soldiers and three civilians on the other.

Within hours, air raid sirens warning of rocket fire were heard on the Israeli side of the border, and heavy shelling resumed in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, killing at least 35 people and wounding 100, medics said. Shortly afterwards the Israeli army said the ceasefire was over and that it was searching for a soldier feared to have been captured in the enclave.

"Our initial indications suggest a soldier has been abducted by terrorists in an incident where terrorists breached the ceasefire," army spokesman Peter Lerner said. Israeli forces were pressing their "activities on the ground", he said, before the military announced that two soldiers had been killed and named the missing man as Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, 23.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accused Hamas and other Gaza militants of "flagrantly violating" the ceasefire.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum countered, saying "it is the (Israeli)...