Erstellt am: 17. 7. 2014 - 13:08 Uhr

Five hours

Reality Check: Gaza humanitarian truce; EU can't decide on top appointments.

Gaza Ceasefire

EPA/Mohammed Saber

Palestinians inspect a destroyed car following an Israeli air strike in Khanyounis, in the southern Gaza Strip, 16 July 2014.

After nine days of fighting in Gaza, a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas began on Thursday. The truce was requested by the United Nations to allow people in Gaza to gather supplies. least 224 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. More than 1,300 Palestinian rockets have been fired on Israel, killing one person and making running to shelters a routine for hundreds of thousands of people.

EU Top Jobs

European Union leaders have failed to choose the next EU foreign affairs chief to replace succeed Catherine Ashton, whose term expires on October, and the next European Council president, to succeed Herman von Rompuy. Ashton was the first person to take up the post as top EU diplomat after it was expanded by the Lisbon treaty, so how well has she performed and what are the challenges facing her successor? And why can’t EU leaders agree?