GAZA CITY
A Palestinian man was killed late on Saturday by Israeli gunfire in the central part of the Gaza Strip, the first fatality since a 12-hour humanitarian ceasefire came to an end at 17:00 GMT in Gaza, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
"The 36-year-old victim was gunned down by Israeli soldiers eastern the Gaza Strip town of Deir Al-Balah," Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qodra told Anadolu Agency.
Al-Qodra noted that the new fatality brings to 1047 the number of Palestinians killed since Israel started its war on the Gaza Strip on July 7. He said 5900 more Gazans were injured by Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave.
The Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said late on Saturday that it did not approve an extension of Gaza's 12-hour humanitarian ceasefire, which came to an end a short time ago in the Palestinian enclave.
"There is no agreement on extending the ceasefire in Gaza by four hours," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.
Gaza's 12-hour U.N.-proposed humanitarian lull came to an end at 17:00 GMT, but the Israeli government said it was expanding this calm by four more hours so that it can come to an end at midnight.
The humanitarian lull came hard on the heels of intensive Israeli shelling of homes and sites in the Gaza Strip, shelling that started on July 7.
Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, fired rockets at Israeli cities in response to relentless Israeli bombardments.
Israel's military operation, dubbed operation "Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populate Gaza Strip – which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – within the last six years.
By Mustafa Haboosh
www.aa.com.tr/en
