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Gaza truce holds, finally

Hamas, Israel agree to stop fighting for 72 hours; Tel Aviv pulls out troops from Gaza, says tunnel mission complete

Agencies
A 72-hour truce took hold in the Gaza Strip yesterday as Israel withdrew ground troops after a month of bitter fighting with Hamas and Palestinians surveyed ruined homes.
The guns fell silent after 29 days of fighting, bringing relief to millions as both sides counted the cost from a conflict that killed 1,875 Palestinians and 67 people in Israel.
The United States and the United Nations have welcomed the truce, saying the onus
was on Hamas to uphold its end of the deal.
Officials on both sides confirmed they had sent small delegations to Cairo for talks aimed at securing a permanent ceasefire after the three-day window closes.
permanent ceasefire after the 72-hour window closes.
" Is this is really my town?" asked Khayri Hasan al-Masri, a father of three who returned to heavily-damaged Beit Hanun in the north for the first time since fleeing for his life when the ground offensive began on July 17.
Gaping holes have pierced the walls of his home. There is a mortar in the living room, a bazooka upstairs.
"How can I explain all this?" he sighed, crunching over debris.
Just minutes before the truce took hold, sirens wailed in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as Hamas fired 16 rockets over the border, while Israeli warplanes carried out at least five strikes on Gaza.
As the truce went into force, Israel confirmed it had pulled out all of its troops, ending a nearly three-week ground operation.
Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said troops would be "deployed in defensive positions" outside Gaza and
would respond to any violation ofthe truce.
Egypt announced the ceasefire late on Monday.
Israel and Hamas, the de facto power in Gaza, confirmed they would abide by the new ceasefire.
It took effect after the quietest night since fighting began. Medics in Gaza reported no deaths or inju-ries since midnight, although two people died from wounds sustained earlier.
The quiet allowed emergency workers to move into previously inaccessible areas, with the worst devastation near the southern city of Rafah, which had been flattened in a massive Israeli assault that began Friday.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, deputy economy minister Taysir Amro said the 29-day war had caused damage of up to $6 billion dollars (4.5 billion euros).
It was the second time in four days that the two sides had agreed to observe a 72-hour humanitarian truce.
The last attempt on August 1 - brokered by Washington and the UN - was shattered within just 90 minutes.
The United States and the United Nations welcomed yesterday's truce, saying the onus was on Hamas to uphold its end of the deal.
The army says it destroyed 32 cross-border tunnels, struck nearly 4,800 targets and killed 900 Palestinian “terrorists".
UN agency OCHA says 1,312 of the Palestinian dead are civilians, including 408 children and 214 women.
Negotiators in the Egyptian capital are likely to face tough challenges with conflicting demands on both sides.
The Palestinians insist Israel end its eight-year blockade of the Gaza Strip and that border crossings be opened.
Israel wants Gaza fully demilitarised, conditioning its facilitation of reconstruction in Gaza on the international community stripping the enclave of heavy weapons.