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U.N. Calls for Immediate Gaza Ceasefire

After emergency midnight meeting.

The United Nations Security Council has called for an “immediate and unconditional humanitarian ceasefire” in the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians. The plea comes at the start of Eid al-Fitr, the three-day Muslim holiday that ends the holy month of Ramadan. For a few hours early Monday, it was relatively peaceful and quiet in Gaza, after Hamas and Israel each offered brief truces to the three weeks of violence. The U.N. Security Council also called on Israel and Hamas to “accept and fully implement the humanitarian ceasefire into the Eid period and beyond,” and to “engage in efforts to achieve a durable and fully respected ceasefire, based on the Egyptian initiative.”