A ceasefire to end a surge of deadly violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel took hold on Monday after hundreds of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes. Israeli strikes killed 21 Palestinians, over half of them civilians, at the weekend, Gaza health authorities said. The violence abated before dawn, and just as Gazans were preparing to begin the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In Gaza, Palestinians attended funerals and extricated bodies from collapsed buildings. "This is a very tough Ramadan. We will not feel festive," said Sumayya Usruf, whose cousin, husband and four-month-old child were killed in an apartment in northern Gaza. Some 2 million Palestinians live in Gaza, the economy of which has suffered years of Israeli and Egyptian blockades as well as recent foreign aid cuts and sanctions by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas' West Bank-based rival. US President Donald Trump's Middle East team has said it will unveil its peace plan in June, after Ramadan is over. Peace negotiations have been moribund since 2014. — Reuters
