ISTANBUL
The first day of a three-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip has passed without reports of the truce being violated.
The 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire began at 8 a.m. (05.00 GMT) on Tuesday following an Egyptian proposal to give the Palestinians and Israelis space to hammer out a final arrangement to end Israel's offensive on Gaza.
In other developments in Gaza on Tuesday:
- The United Nations, warned the attacks in Gaza would lead to a health disaster. UNICEF's Gaza field office chief Pernille Ironside said Gazans could not find drinking water which was uncontaminated by sewage.
- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to call for a UN Security Council meeting to be held over the Israeli offensive.
- Turkey's Anadolu Agency launched a website entitled "gazasurvey.com" reporting the death toll in the Gaza Strip, as well as naming the victims of Israel's attacks and the damage to hospitals, mosques, homes and other buildings.
- Palestinian journalists on Tuesday thanked Erdogan for supporting journalists in the blockaded Gaza Strip against Israeli violations.
- The Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement: "We wish that this truce will form the required basis for negotiations to reach a lasting ceasefire in Gaza."
- The Palestinian Health Ministry disclosed the identities of 1,452 people who were killed in attacks carried out by the Israeli army.
- The Pakistani parliament has passed a resolution declaring the Israeli incursion into Gaza as being tantamount to war crimes and genocide of the Palestinian people.
- Spanish authorities decided to temporarily freeze arms sales to Israel due to its attacks in Gaza.
- Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and called for an extensive investigation into the Israeli attacks on UN schools.
- Tony Blair's Muslim convert sister-in-law Lauren Booth - a co-founder of UK charity Peace Trail which delivers assistance to students and families in the region - told Anadolu Agency the charity was helping Palestinian people through its offices in Gaza.
- Britain’s first female Muslim cabinet minister, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, resigned from the government in protest over its policies on the Gaza Strip.
- The Israeli army withdrew its forces from the embattled Gaza Strip as the ceasefire came into effect, while an Israeli officials said, after the ceasefire, the forces would maintain defensive positions near the Gaza border.
- The European Union's Foreign and Security Policy Chief, Catherine Ashton, said that civilian casualties should stop immediately and the firing of rockets to Gaza Strip should also be halted.
- Hundreds of people staged a protest at The Hague in the Netherlands against Israel's attacks.
- The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that at least 1,867 Palestinians, mostly civilians, had been killed and 9,470 wounded in Israel's unrelenting attacks since July 7.
- The Israeli army said 64 of its troops had been killed and 651 injured in Gaza combat operations, while three civilians had been killed in rocket attacks on Israeli cities.
http://www.aa.com.tr/en
