Gaza guns fall silent to bury dead

Fighting resumed immediately after the truce, held 12 days into Israel’s onslaught against Hamas, as diplomats pressed for a permanent ceasefire.[>

Hamas and Israel both said they would consider a Franco-Egyptian ceasefire plan. But Jerusalem rejected a claim by French president Nicolas Sarkozy that Israel had already accepted the truce.[>

After a meeting of the security cabinet, Israeli officials said they would send a delegation to Egypt in the coming days to discuss a truce proposal put to them by President Hosni Mubarak.[>

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas also said he would attend the talks.[>

Details of the proposal were unclear but it was believed to be based on installing an international force to prevent the smuggling of weapons from Egypt into Gaza while allowing border crossings into the territory to be opened.[>

But Israel demanded that rockets stop being fired by Hamas.[>

Gaza residents took advantage of the break in hostilities to rush into the streets and stock up on supplies or search for loved ones.[>

Queues formed outside bakeries and grocery shops for the first time since Israel sent troops into the beleaguered territory on Saturday.[>

The first details of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza also began to emerge, with soldiers describing close combat with Hamas fighters trying to lure them into a booby-trapped warren of underground tunnels and alleys.[>

Hamas’s main strategy is to draw Israeli troops into crowded urban settings where their local knowledge and guerrilla tactics will have the advantage.[>

The soldiers said they had encountered numerous suicide bombers and would-be kidnappers on motorbikes whose aim was to snatch Israeli soldiers as hostages.[>

In one incident, a soldier said he pulled his comrade from a tunnel under a Hamas fighter’s house and foiled a kidnap attempt.[>

But for three hours at least, Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis in nearby towns were grateful for the chance to temporarily resume their lives.[>

Trucks from UN and aid warehouses distributed tons of food, medical supplies and fuel to distribution centres, hospitals and shops throughout Gaza.[>

Ashraf Al-Issawi, a father of eight in Gaza City, said it was the first time he had ventured more than a few yards from his apartment for days.[>

“I went down today because I thought it might be more safe,” he said. “We have run out of rice and cooking gas. I have to buy bread or we will have nothing to eat.”[>

Large queues formed at bakeries for a ration of one bag of bread per family.[>

At the end of the truce, fighting resumed around Gaza. Two Hamas rockets landed in the Israeli desert town of Beersheba, 20 miles west of the nuclear plant of Dimona. There were no casualties or damage.[>

Coventry-based Manal Timraz, 39, joined the calls for peace after 15 members of her family living in Gaza – four cousins and 11 of their young children – were wiped out by a bomb last Friday.[>

“I am British and I want my people to be able to live in peace throughout the world,” said

Egyptian-born Manal, who moved here six years ago.[>