Israel, Hamas prepare for brief humanitarian ceasefire

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* U.N.-requested truce will allow Gazans to resupply * Israel says repels attack by gunmen who tunnelled in * Diplomacy continues for permanent ceasefire By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ari Rabi**vitch GAZA/JERUSALEM, July 17 (Reuters) - Israel and Hamas said they would cease fighting for five hours on Thursday for a humanitarian truce requested by the United Nations, though Israel remained poised to expand its offensive in the Gaza Strip if rocket fire persisted. Just a few hours before the temporary truce was due to take effect at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), Israel's military said it repelled an attack by at least a dozen Palestinian gunmen who tunnelled in from Gaza near an Israeli community. Israel said the break was to allow Gaza residents to gather supplies and repair infrastructure damaged in 10 days of warfare in which Israeli fire has killed at least 221 Palestinians, most of them, Gaza health officials said, civilians. In Israel, a civilian has been killed by one of more than 1,300 Palestinian rockets fired and more than half a dozen people have been wounded in frequent strikes that have made a race to shelters a routine for hundreds of thousands of people.

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