After a long day and night of negotiations, Israeli and Palestinian leaders accepted a 12-hour humanitarian ceasefire that went into effect at 8 a.m. Saturday. The ceasefire continued through the early morning hours without interruption.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry worked the phones and diplomatic aisles non-stop to work out the humanitarian pause in the deadly fighting. He said it was a beginning and hoped to generate momentum towards a longer ceasefire and deal to end the 19 days of intense fighting.

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Truce negotiations were continuing Saturday in Paris where French diplomats hosted counterparts from Britain, Italy, Germany and the European Union along with Kerry and Turkish and Qatari diplomats. Since the U.S. has classified Hamas as a terrorist group, all U.S. efforts to talk with Hamas have gone through Hamas allies Turkey and Qatar.

Each side in the conflict continued heavy fighting right up until the ceasefire took effect. Hamas rockets triggered sirens in central and southern Israel shortly before the temporary truce went into effect. Israel's anti-missile system called the Iron Dome destroyed three rockets with three additional rockets falling in empty fields around Eshkol, officials said.

The Palestinian death toll stood at 865 while the Israeli military said two more soldiers were killed bringing the number of dead IDF soldiers to 37 since the force entered the Gaza Strip. An additional three Israeli civilians had been killed by Hamas rocket fire.

Israel on Friday rejected informal international proposals for a permanent truce. However, Kerry said no formal presentations were made and negotiations would continue towards a permanent cessation of hostilities.  Those negotiations centered on the wording of a possible agreement as Kerry said "serious progress had been made" although more work was needed to fill in a settlement framework already in place.

In other related news, protests against Israel spilled over the West Bank with an estimated 10,000 demonstrators marching in support of Hamas. Protestors rallied against an IDF checkpoint near Ramallah throwing molotov cocktails and rocks at Israeli troops. One protester was shot dead and 200 wounded in the altercations.

More demonstrations were called for by the Palestine Liberation Organization even as its leader Mahmoud Abbas said he was working to arrange a permanent cease-fire arrangement.

TagsGaza fighting, Israel-Gaza crisis, Israel vs. Hamas, Secretary of State John Kerry, Gaza Strip, IDF