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# Gaza
Palestinian authority backs Hamas truce demands as two children killed in Gaza
As a solution is sought, fighting continued on the ground, with five more people dead.
THE DECISION MAKING body of Palestine has backed demands made by Hamas for a peace deal that would stop fighting in Gaza.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), led by Mahmoud Abbas, has endorsed the core conditions set out by Hamas, which include the lifting of the blockade on Gaza.
The move could signal a solution in the fighting, which has left over 600 people, mostly civilians, dead. Abbas, who leads the moderate Fatah party, suggested a truce that would be followed by five days of negotiations.
The decision by the PLO comes as the Egyptian government continues to attempt to find a solution to the fighting.
Fighting
Meanwhile, Israeli tank fire killed five people, including two children, in southern Gaza this morning, medics said.
The deaths come on the 16th day of a campaign against militants in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The shelling hit houses east of the city of Khan Yunis, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP.
Last night, Israeli fire hit a UN school sheltering the displaced for the second time in two days, said the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA.
“UNRWA condemns in the strongest possible terms the shelling of one of its schools in the central area of Gaza,” it said in a statement, which came a day after Hamas rockets were found in another, disused school.
AFP contributed reporting
Read: World pushes for Israel-Palestine ceasefire as seven more killed in Gaza
Read: US and European airlines suspend flights from flying in or out of Israel
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