Truce rejected but Israel agrees 6-hour ceasefire

Israeli shelling killed four boys on a Gaza beach yesterday, a local health official said, and Palestinian militants fired more than 100 rockets into Israel after a failed Egyptian attempt to halt more than a week of warfare.

Israel later agreed to a proposed six-hour cessation of hostilities for humanitarian reasons, a senior Israeli official said, adding that it had not yet been decided when the lull would take place.

The Islamist Hamas, which rules Gaza, had no immediate comment. The appeal came from the United Nations, the Israeli official said, shortly after Hamas rejected an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire to end the nine-day war.