Gaza bombing continues during Israel's limited truce

A Gaza City house has been shelled and other areas in Gaza have been fired upon since an Israeli-declared seven-hour humanitarian truce has come into effect.

The Gaza Health Ministry said a child was killed and 30 people, mostly women and children, were wounded in the strike on Monday on a house in Shati refugee camp.

An Israeli military spokeswoman told news agency Reuters she was checking the report .In a statement early on Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, said "Israel does not aim its fire at civilians and is sorry for any attack that unintentionally hits civilians", without directly addressing the Rafah attack.

Israeli attacks on Gaza continued on Monday and killed 11 people raising the death toll since the July 8 beginning of the confrontation to at least 1,817, according to Palestinian medical sources.

An Israeli air raid killed an Islamic Jihad commander in the Gaza Strip just hours before Monday's partial truce went into effect.

The Islamic Jihad group - a close ally of Hamas - said Daniel Mansour, its commander in the northern part of Gaza, died when an Israeli strike hit his home just before dawn.

Israel earlier declared that it was holding fire in parts of the Gaza Strip for seven hours, amid world outrage over a deadly strike on a UN school in the Palestinian territory.

Monday's limited and unilateral truce, between 0700-1400 GMT, was announced after world powers fiercely condemned the previous day's attack that left 10 Palestinians sheltering at a school dead, as Israel was pulling some of its troops from Gaza.

The Israeli army said the "humanitarian window" would take place in all of the Gaza Strip except the area east of the southern city of Rafah, "where clashes were still ongoing and there was an Israeli military presence."

The army warned in a statement that it would "respond to any attempt to exploit this window" and attack civilians and soldiers during the truce.

It also said that residents of Abasan al Kabira and Abasan al Saghira, two villages east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, could return home.

Israel declared a seven-hour “humanitarian window” in Gaza to start at 10am local time amid international outrage at the third deadly attack on a UN school sheltering displaced Palestinians and mounting pressure for the bloodshed to end.

The unilateral ceasefire is the eighth temporary pause in fighting, nearly all of which have broken down amid mutual accusations of violations.

The Israeli army has exempted the area around the southern town of Rafah, where the UN school was struck on Sunday and fighting was continuing. Troops were working on destroying a cross-border tunnel in the area.

Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner said the Israel Defence Forces was close to completing its mission to destroy the network of tunnels leading into Israel. “We’ve caused substantial damage to this network to an extent where we’ve basically taken this huge threat and made it minimal,” he said.

Hamas said it did not trust Israel’s motives for declaring a unilateral ceasefire. “The calm Israel declared is unilateral and aims to divert attention away from the Israeli massacres. We do not trust such a calm and we urge our people to exercise caution,” said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

As the conflict entered its 28th day, airstrikes continued overnight in and around Gaza City though of lesser intensity than previous nights. Rockets were fired by Hamas in the hours before the ceasefire was to come into effect.

The attack on a UN school, killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens more and coming just four days after a similar attack in Gaza City caused international shock and anger, was denounced as a “moral outrage and a criminal act” by UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

It was “yet another gross violation of international humanitarian law, which clearly requires protection by both parties of Palestinian civilians, UN staff and UN premises, among other civilian facilities.” He called for a swift investigation, saying “those responsible [must be] held accountable. It is a moral outrage and a criminal act.”

The Israel Defence Forces had been “repeatedly informed of the location of these sites,” said Ban.