Hamas agrees 12-hour truce from Saturday morning—official

Smoke from an Israeli strike rises over Gaza City, Friday, July 25, 2014. Israel says the goal of its operation is to destroy Hamas military tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border and to halt rocket fire from Gaza on Israeli communities. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

GAZA CITY— A Hamas official told AFP on Saturday that the Islamist militant group would observe a 12-hour Gaza ceasefire starting later in the morning.

“There is national consensus on a humanitarian truce… for 12 hours on Saturday, from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, (0500 to 1700 GMT),” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zukhri told AFP.

A US official said late Friday that Israel had decided on a unilateral 12-hour Gaza ceasefire from 7:00 am Saturday morning.

There has been no official Israeli comment but Haaretz newspaper quoted an unnamed senior Israeli official as confirming a 7:00 am Israeli ceasefire.

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