More than 1,450 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died since the conflict began, health officials say. Sixty-one Israeli soldiers, two civilians and a Thai national have been killed. Israel says it aims to stop rocket attacks by Palestinian militants in Gaza and remove the threat of being attacked from the tunnels.

Hamas wants a blockade of Gaza, maintained by both Israel and Egypt, to be lifted. Speaking in India, Mr Kerry warned that a break in the fighting did not guarantee an end to the conflict. "This is a respite. It is a moment of opportunity, not an end," he said. Israel meanwhile wants the demilitarisation of Gaza and international guarantees against the replenishment of Hamas rocket stockpiles and the building of new tunnels into Israel, the New York Times reports.

Update: Breaking Ceasefire, Hamas Abducts Soldier, Kills Two Others

The IDF Spokesperson's office announced Friday that at about 9:30 am, terrorists opened fire on Israeli forces in southern Gaza, triggering a fierce exchange of fire, and preliminary information indicates that there is a concern that a soldier was kidnapped during the fighting.

Heavy fighting broke out on the outskirts of Rafah shortly after the UN and US-brokered "humanitarian ceasefire" went into effect, after a group of terrorists allegedly emerged from a tunnel and began opening heavy fire at IDF forces stationed there.

At least one report, this time from Walla! News, says that a suicide bomber detonated himself directly next to IDF forces before the fighting began, wounding several soldiers. "If corroborated, this would constitute a serious violation of the humanitarian ceasefire... by Gazan militant factions, which should be condemned in the strongest terms," the statement said.

This is morally wrong. Indeed, it is unconscionable and indefensible. Israel not only has the right but the responsibility to defend its citizens, both Jews and Arabs and those of other ethnicities. In fighting the terrorists sworn to obliterate her, Israel is doing what any civilized democracy would do. It is tragic that civilians in Gaza are being killed and injured. But Israel isn’t targeting them. They are warning them to get out of the way — using text messages, phone calls, leaflets and other measures.

It is Hamas who is using civilians as human shields. It is Hamas who wants as many Palestinians to die as possible, hoping this will cause the world to turn even further against Israel. Israel must do everything it can to prevent the loss of innocent life. They must set the highest possible standard. But Hamas bears ultimate responsibility for all the death and destruction. This war wouldn’t be happening if Hamas wasn’t attacking Israel day after day.

Information that Israeli Defense Forces reportedly obtained from captured Hamas fighters revealed that the group was planning to use several Gaza tunnels that extend under Israeli territory for a major attack timed with the beginning of the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, on September 24. The plan called for Hamas fighters to surface from the tunnels in Israel and kill as many people as possible. The plot was first reported by the Israeli newspaper Maariv.

Israel’s military operation against Hamas in Gaza has gone on longer than expected because of the discovery of the extensive tunnel network, which is estimated to have cost as much as $2 billion to construct. Many of Hamas‘ longer-range rockets have been destroyed, although the Israeli military is looking for other tunnels in Gaza where rockets could be kept.

Dadon was speaking in an interview on Israel Radio Thursday morning, presenting an aspect of Operation Protective Edge that few Israelis were aware of — the extensive use Hamas has made of computer and networking systems in its war against Israel. Not only is Qatar footing the bill, it also trained Hamas terrorists how to use sophisticated equipment and systems to manage its extensive terror tunnel system, as well as systems to fire rockets at Israel using automatic, timed launching systems.

“Qatar looks at this war between Israel and Hamas as a proving ground,” said Dadon, a senior cyber-security adviser at several Israeli government ministries. “They are taking lessons from the performance of their cyber-equipment and will improve them even further for the next war, which will be even more cyber-oriented than this one.”

Some demonstrators may have said such things, conceded Leila El Abtah, a 29-year-old protester who is the daughter of a Palestinian father and a German mother. But, she insisted, even thoughtful criticism against Israel is being misinterpreted here as hate speech. “There are more of us speaking out about Israel now,” she said. “Because of what happened during Hitler’s day, it is making Germans nervous.”

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is echoing on the streets of Europe, sparking a rash of protests — both peaceful and violent — and ratcheting up tensions across the continent. Saturday in London, 45,000 protesters gathered outside Israel’s embassy, chanting “Free Palestine.” In France, a nation already facing an uptick in anti-Semitic violence before the Israeli strikes on Gaza, pro-Palestinian youths last week looted and set fire to Jewish businesses in a suburb of Paris.

French authorities have banned anti-Israel protests, but thousands of young demonstrators have defied the edict, engaging police with rocks and bottles.

As the Los Angeles Times notes, the rate at which this level of drought has spread throughout the state is unprecedented. In fact, about 22 percent of the state was moved into the “exceptional” category during the last week. “You keep beating the record, which are still all from this year," National Drought Mitigation Center climatologist Mark Svoboda told the Times.

Additionally, California’s reservoirs are significantly short of where they need to be. Their current state isn’t as bad as it was in the low point of 1977, but Brad Rippey of the US Department of Agriculture stated that “California is short more than one year’s worth of reservoir water, or 11.6 million acre-feet, for this time of year” as a result of the drought. That fact alone is important to Svoboda, who said conditions are likely to get worse.

“It’s hard because the drought is not over and you’re in the dry season. Our eyes are already on next winter,” he said to the Times. “Outside of some freakish atmospheric conditions, reservoir levels are going to continue to go down. You’re a good one to two years behind the eight ball.” Now in its third year, the drought has left local officials and lawmakers scrambling to address the problem. As RT reported previously, the state’s water regulators have established new regulations that allow them to levy fines of up to $500 against those using water wastefully, while Governor Jerry Brown has tried to drastically lower the state’s overall consumption of water.

California has also shut down 11 oil and gas exploration sites – and is reviewing more than 100 others – in areas hit hard by the drought, which has already cost the state more than $2 billion this year alone. The order came over fears that companies may be injecting toxic wastewater into underwater aquifers that are being tapped for drinking water. In addition to concerns over drinking water, the dry conditions statewide have increased the threat of wildfires, which have raged through parts of California, damaging homes and forcing evacuations.

"Expert claims panic over death of US man in Nigeria is 'justified'" reports the Daily Mail. "He warned the spread of Ebola could become a global pandemic." With apologies to those victims who have suffered the horrible fate of Ebola, I'm offering a medically accurate description here as a warning to everybody else. Believe me when I say you do NOT want to contract Ebola.

Warning: Graphic language below.

Ebola is a gruesome disease that causes cells in the body to self-destruct, resulting in massive internal and external bleeding. In its late stages, Ebola can cause the victim to experience convulsions, vomiting and bleeding from the eyes and ears while convulsing, flinging blood all over the room and anyone standing nearby, thereby infecting those people as well. This gruesome ending is the reason Ebola spreads so effectively. The virus "weaponizes" the blood, then causes the victim to fling it around on everyone else almost like you might see depicted in some horror zombie flick.

"Haemorrhaging symptoms begin 4-5 days after onset, which includes hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, pharyngitis, bleeding gums, oral/lip ulceration, hematemesis, melena, hematuria, epistaxis, and vaginal bleeding," reports the Pathogen Safety Data Sheet from the Public Health Agency of Canada. That same publication also explains, "There are no known antiviral treatments available for human infections."

Read that again: There are NO KNOWN TREATMENTS for human infections.

In the article, Roberts notes: As reported by Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge, the Russian response to the extra-legal ruling of a corrupt court in the Netherlands, which had no jurisdiction over the case on which it ruled, awarding $50 billion dollars from the Russian government to shareholders of Yukos, a corrupt entity that was looting Russia and evading taxes, is telling. Asked what Russia would do about the ruling, an advisor to President Putin replied, “There is a war coming in Europe.” Do you really think this ruling matters?”

In January, well-known economist Nouriel Roubini tweeted from the gathering of the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum in Davos:

“Many speakers compare 2014 to 1914 when WWI broke out & no one expected it. A black swan in the form of a war between China & Japan?”

And: “Both Abe and an influential Chinese analyst don’t rule out a military confrontation between China and Japan. Memories of 1914?”

Billionaire hedge fund manager Kyle Bass writes:

“Trillions of dollars of debts will be restructured and millions of financially prudent savers will lose large percentages of their real purchasing power at exactly the wrong time in their lives. Again, the world will not end, but the social fabric of the profligate nations will be stretched and in some cases torn. Sadly, looking back through economic history, all too often war is the manifestation of simple economic entropy played to its logical conclusion. We believe that war is an inevitable consequence of the current global economic situation.”