No accounts of violence have been reported Monday since the time Israel said it would begin holding fire for seven hours in most of the Gaza Strip to allow Palestinians access to humanitarian aid and for displaced civilians to return to their homes.
However, just hours before the truce was scheduled to start, an Israeli airstrike killed a militant Palestinian leader. The Islamic Jihad group said its commander in the northern part of the the Gaza Strip, Daniel Mansour, died when the strike hit his home.
Israel positioned tanks near the Gaza border Monday before the cease-fire went into effect.
Hamas, which controls Gaza, is skeptical about the truce announcement, and urged Palestinians in Gaza "to take caution."
The truce was announced just hours after an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza town of Rafah killed at least 10 civilians who had sought shelter in a United Nations school.
The Israeli military later said it had targeted three suspected militants near the school, and said it was "reviewing the consequences" of the strike. It also said Monday's truce will not apply to Rafah, where military operations were set to continue.
Witnesses said the school was struck as people were waiting in line for food. In the chaotic aftermath, several bodies, including those of children, were strewn across the ground in pools of blood.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported attack, the second to hit a school in less than a week, and the third strike in 10 days on a U.N. school used for refugees.
The latest attack drew a strong rebuke from U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, who called it "a moral outrage and a criminal act."
In his most strongly worded statement yet on an attack against a U.N. facility in Gaza, Ban called it “yet another gross violation of international humanitarian law, which clearly requires protection by both parties of Palestinian civilians, U.N. staff and U.N. premises, among other civilian facilities.”
“This attack, along with other breaches of international law, must be swiftly investigated and those responsible held accountable. It is a moral outrage and a criminal act,” Ban said.
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The U.S. State Department initially referred to the school strike as "a shelling," with spokeswoman Jen Psaki calling it "appalling" and "disgraceful."
“The United States is appalled by today's disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA school in Rafah sheltering some 3,000 displaced persons, in which at least ten more Palestinian civilians were tragically killed,” Psaki said in a statement.
She urged Israel to do more to prevent civilian casualties in its war against Hamas militants, and also called for an investigation into recent attacks on U.N. schools.
An Israeli military spokesman Sunday said Hamas fired several mortars from the vicinity of that school on Saturday. But the U.S. said the suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put "so many innocent civilians" at risk.
Last Wednesday, at least 15 Palestinians who sought refuge in a U.N.-run school in Jabalya refugee camp were killed during fighting, and the U.N. said it appeared that Israeli artillery had hit the building. The Israeli military said gunmen had fired mortar bombs from near the school and it shot back in response.
Hospitals in Gaza on Sunday struggled to cope with a new influx of wounded from Israeli airstrikes in recent days.
Palestinian officials said 1,766 people had been killed in the fighting, most of whom were civilians, and nearly 10,000 wounded.
The Israeli military death toll rose to 64 after Israel announced that Hadar Goldin, a 23-year-old infantry lieutenant feared captured in Gaza, was actually killed in battle. His funeral is later Sunday.
Goldin's remains were identified with his DNA, said an Israeli military spokesman.
The attack that caused his death was the incident that broke a short-lived cease-fire on Friday and brought renewed fighting in which 180 people reportedly have died.
Hamas fired at least 50 rockets toward Israel on Sunday, the Israeli military said, and has fired more than 3,000 rockets since the war began last month, killing three three Israeli civilians and damaging several homes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday the ground operation to destroy infiltration tunnels into Israel was nearly ended.
More than 30 tunnels and dozens of access shafts have been unearthed and were being blown up, military officials said.