Palestinian children return to Gaza City beach where four boys were killed by Israeli gunboat strike less than a month ago

Children paddle in the surf as fishermen throw their nets by the spot where Israeli gunboat killed four cousins

The youngsters were killed less than a month ago in full view of international journalists at a seafront hotel

Ceasefire is in its second day and Israel reports no Hamas rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip



Break in the violence reveals the true scale of the devastation to the narrow coastal territory

Talks between Hamas and Israel for a longer-lasting peace were set to resume in Cairo, Egypt, today

UNRWA warns 'massive human displacement catastrophe is morphing into a massive homelessness crisis' in Gaza




Children were once again playing on the beaches of Gaza City today, less than a month after four young cousins were killed in the same spot by Israeli shells.

Two days into the latest truce between Hamas and Israel, boys and girls paddled in the surf and fishermen dragged their nets through the warm waters of the eastern Mediterranean.

Looking out across the beach and the sea, pictures of the scene could almost be depictions of a tucked away resort. But pan 180 degrees and the devastation of the Gaza Strip would be all too apparent.

Palestinian children paddle by the beach of Gaza City: It is less than a month since four young cousins from the same family were killed by shells from an Israeli gunboat as the ran across this beach This image posted on Twitter is believed to show a different view of three of the boys running for their lives along the beach, before they were hit by a second Israeli shell

Palestinians swim as fishermen on boats throw their fishing nets into the water: With a three-day truce now into its second day, these bathers and fishermen should be safe for now

Now and then: Things appear calm on the Gaza City beach today, but right is the scene of the atrocity less than four weeks ago that shocked the world



Four weeks ago this very beach was the scene of an atrocity that shocked the world when Israeli sailors killed four young boys playing hide-and-seek among the fishermen's huts of Gaza City's modest harbour.

As an explosion ripped through a beach shack in full view of international journalists watching from their nearby hotel, reports gave an account of four ragged, tiny silhouettes running furiously for their lives.

Seconds later, as the boys raced across the beach, watching reporters were stunned when the gunboat lurking off the coast of the besieged territory fired again, this time scoring a direct hit.

Even as the violence has calmed in Gaza and negotiations between Hamas and Israel continued today, the names of Mohammed Bakr, 11, Zakaria Bakr, 10, Ahed Bakr, 10, and Mohammed Bakr, nine, have not been forgotten.

But today the Sun brought solace to Gaza's people, even as the homes of an estimated 100,000 of them lie in ruins from the relentless bombardment that lasted more than a month.

Nearly 2,000 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds of thousands more forced from their homes. Water, electricity and sanitation systems have been devastated and, with the security situation still unclear, aid agencies have been unable to even begin counting the cost.



With the Palestinian territory's binmen unable to work since the beginning of the offensive on July 8, rubbish is out of control. Farm animals hunting for morsels of food picked through the refuse in one area where it lay piled in heaps.

Across the Gaza Strip the scene was almost post-apocalyptic, with whole neighbourhoods shattered and once-bustling streets abandoned by the hundreds of thousands of civilians still cowering in UN shelters.

Sheep search for food in a rubbish dump in Gaza: Sanitation workers have been unable to clean the streets in the strip since the Israeli offensive began in July

Shepherds watch their animals scouring the rubbish: The scenes across the territory appeared post-apocalyptic, with thousands of homes shattered A Palestinian flag flutters as man searches for his belongings in the ruins of his house in Khan Younis, which witnesses said was destroyed in the Israeli offensive A Palestinian woman is pictured through a hole in a damaged satellite as she stands atop the remains of her house in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip Two Palestinian youths, one with his arm in a bandage, sit under a makeshift shelter amid the rubble of homes in the town of Beit Lahiya In Cairo, Egypt, marathon, indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel on a lasting cease-fire and a long-term solution for the battered Gaza Strip were set to resume today. A similar, three-day truce collapsed on Friday when militants resumed rocket fire on Israel after the sides were unable to make any headway in the Egypt-hosted talks. Hamas is seeking an end to an Israeli-Egyptian border blockade of the Gaza Strip while Israel wants Hamas to disarm.

A group of human rights organisations says it is organising a flotilla of vessels that will attempt to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza later this year.

Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief Works Agency, which provides assistance and protection for Palestinian refugees, told MailOnline 'a massive human displacement catastrophe is morphing into a massive homelessness crisis.' 'In order for us to say how many houses, how many schools and how many communities have been destroyed we have got to get engineers in place, but until there's proper security we cant send engineers out into the field,' he said. 'People leaving our schools are going to see their homes, and then they're coming back, that suggests that their homes are uninhabitable.' 'There are probably bodies under the rubble,' he said. 'People, if they can get back to their homes, will probably find their water systems and sewage systems destroyed. I don't know how we are going to start the school year.'

A Palestinian woman drinks from a well in Gaza: The Palestinian Ministry of Works announced that more than 90 per cent of the infrastructure on the Gaza Strip has been destroyed

A boy fills a container with water: The United Nations Relief Works Agency has been trucking water to areas where the water infrastructure has been destroyed

With much of the water and sanitation infrastructure destroyed, UNRWA has been trucking water to shelters cut off from regular supplies. Some shelters were able to provide for the needs of refugees thanks to their own wells, UNRWA said.



According to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 386,000 people in the Gaza Strip have been forced from their homes by the bombardment.

Latest estimates are that 16,700 homes have been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, leaving more than 100,000 people homeless.

With 25 schools destroyed or severely damaged since the start of the emergency, and a further 230 in need of at least some repairs, the start of the new school year is expected to be delayed.

Those homes that are still standing get an average of four hours of electricity a day, according to Mr Gunness. In many places, the electricity grid is entirely destroyed.

The death toll in Gaza stands at 1,960, including at least 1,395 civilians, 458 of them children. Two Israeli civilians and one foreign national working in Israel have been killed by Hamas rockets, as well as the 64 Israeli soldiers killed after they invaded the territory.

The Israeli military said no incidents between the two sides were registered overnight - neither Hamas rocket fire at Israel nor Israeli strikes in Gaza.

Israelis enjoying time at the beach in the southern city of Ashkelon, Israel. Reports state that many Israelis residents are trying to return to normal life

Palestinians rest in front of the destroyed Nada Towers in the town of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip

Israelis enjoying time in the sea in the southern city of Ashkelon. Reports state that many Israelis residents close to the border with Gaza Strip are making the most of the ceasefire

Israelis are making the most of the ceasefire as another 72-hour truce went into effect after more than four weeks of fighting with Palestinian militants

In Israel, 67 people have been killed during the month-long conflict, all but three of them soldiers, officials there say

On Sunday this city near the sea was hit by a barrage of rockets, Today Israelis were enjoying time at the beach

The Israeli delegation returned to the Egyptian capital on Tuesday after a trip back to Israel.

A senior Israeli official suggested that the first day of talks had not gone well.

'The gaps between the sides are big and there is no progress in the negotiations,' he said.

A member of the Palestinian delegation said that in Monday's talks, Israel had offered a number of concrete measures aimed at improving life for Gaza's 1.8 million residents, including an increase in the number of daily goods trucks crossing into the territory from Israel, and the free transfer of funds by the Palestinian Authority to Hamas-affiliated government employees in Gaza.

Also included in the purported Israeli package, the official said, was an easing in transit conditions between Gaza and the West Bank and an eventual quadrupling - to 12 miles - of the sea area in which Gaza fishing vessels are permitted to operate.

The official said that Israel was tying continuing Palestinian demands for the opening of a Gaza sea and airport to a verified cessation of smuggling, development and manufacture of weapons in the territory.

Nassim (centre), seven-years-old, and his older brother Ali (right) play around as they jump on the back of a donkey drawn cart while heading back home moments after leaving a UN school in Jabalia

A tent pitched in front of the destroyed Nada Towers as Palestinians return to the area to inspect what remains of their homes during a 72-hour ceasefire observed in the Gaza Strip

Ibrahim Radwan inspects damages of his family apartment caused by a fallen minaret of the Al-Sousi mosque, that was destroyed in an Israel strike, at Shati refugee camp, in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip

Palestinian women walk past the rubble of their homes in Gaza City's Shijaiyah neighborhood

Palestinians use a bulldozer to clear the rubble of al-Qassam mosque, hit by an Israeli air-strike Saturday, from a street in Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip

CAMPAIGNERS PLAN NEW FREEDOM FLOTILLA TO BREAK BLOCKADE

A group of human rights organisations says it is organising a flotilla of vessels that will attempt to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza later this year.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said it plans to sail to Gaza 'during 2014'. It said the flotilla was 'a reflection of the growing worldwide solidarity with the Palestinian people'.

The group said the boats would also be carrying 'Palestinian commercial products purchased by buyers worldwide to complete the work of Gaza's Ark', a cargo boat built by the FFC and Palestinians that the group said was bombed on July 11.

The group organised two previous flotillas, in 2010 and in 2011. During the first, Israeli forces stormed the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, killing nine people on board. The incident led to a breakdown in Turkish-Israeli relations.

Last week's talks failed in part because Israel rejected Hamas' demand for a complete end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip, enforced by Egypt and Israel.

Israel says the closure is necessary to prevent arms smuggling, and officials do not want to make any concessions that would allow Hamas to declare victory.

The blockade has greatly limited the movement of Palestinians in and out of the impoverished territory. It has also limited the flow of goods into Gaza and blocked virtually all exports. Unemployment in the coastal territory is more than 50 percent.

Hamas officials have since signalled that they will have more modest goals in the current round of talks.

Another member of the Palestinian delegation said that Egyptian officials told the delegation to expect 'an extremely long negotiating session' on Tuesday - an indication that the talks may be about to enter a sensitive phase.

The Israeli official and the two members of the Palestinian delegation al spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks with the media.

This round of Gaza fighting - the third in six years - escalated from the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June.



Israel blamed the killings on Hamas and launched a massive arrest campaign, rounding up hundreds of its members in the West Bank.

Hamas and other militants then unleashed rocket fire from Gaza and Israel launched its air campaign against Gaza on July 8.

