Residents in Gaza are using a 12-hour humanitarian truce to return to their homes, gather essential supplies and search for those trapped in the rubble.

Gaza's health ministry says 60 bodies have been recovered, with 35 already brought to the Shifa Hospital morgue.

The Palestinian death toll now stands at 935, officials say, since Israel began strikes against Hamas on 8 July. Thirty-eight Israelis have died.

International talks on a longer truce are resuming in Paris.

Correspondents reported a tense situation in areas hardest-hit by air strikes and tank shelling, but some semblance of normal life returning.

Israel said it would continue to "locate and neutralise" Hamas tunnels during the pause, which began at 8am local time.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting the foreign ministers of Turkey, Qatar and several European countries later on Saturday in Paris in the hopes of agreeing a longer ceasefire.

Israeli strikes killed at least 19 Palestinians overnight at a family home near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Two Israeli soldiers were also killed, Israel's military confirmed. The Iron Dome defence system intercepted three rockets fired towards the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon overnight.

A spokesman for Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri said late on Friday that there was "national consensus on a humanitarian truce... for 12 hours on Saturday".

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later confirmed the truce on Twitter but vowed to respond if attacked. "We will respond if terrorists choose to exploit this time to attack IDF personnel or fire at Israeli civilians," it said in a statement.

Banks are due to open and maintenance work is being carried out to try to repair damage done to the electricity and water supplies during the recent intense Israeli bombardment, she adds.

Despite failure on Friday to agree a longer-term deal, US Secretary of State John Kerry said he was still confident of a longer ceasefire, despite media reports that Israel had rejected one proposal.

"The goal is to bring together international efforts so that as quickly as possible conditions for a cease-fire in Gaza emerge," said a French foreign ministry spokesman.

The announcement of the humanitarian truce came shortly after Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon warned that ground operations in Gaza could soon be broadened "significantly".

Mr Yaalon told soldiers: "You need to be ready for the possibility that very soon we will instruct the military to significantly broaden the ground operation in Gaza".

Hamas has previously said it would not agree to any long-term truce that did not lead to an end to Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has been in place since 2007.

There were also clashes during protests in the West Bank on Friday which left at least five Palestinians dead.

Palestinians in the West Bank had declared a "Day of Rage" against Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile Israel's military said its Iron Dome defence system had intercepted several rockets fired across the border by Hamas.

Israel launched its military offensive on 8 July with the declared objective of stopping Hamas firing rockets into Israel.

It has since extended its operation to destroy tunnels dug by militants to infiltrate Israel.