lives destroyed, homes reduced to rubble. we follow gazans surveying the devastation as the 12-hour cease-fire is extended. they meet in paris to call to a further extension to the cease-fire. hello there. this is al jazeera live from doha. also ahead on this program -- fighting in libya prompts the u.s. to close its embassy in tripoli and pull out its staff.

with the islamic state group firmly controlled in mosul, we ask how life in the iraqi city has changed. a grim milestone has been reached in the gaza conflict. 1,000 palestinians have been killed over a span of 19 days. almost 6,000 have been injured. we're just hearing at that both hamas and israel have now agreed to extend a 12-hour cease-fire by 4 more hours. that brings locals up to midnight for the truce. meanwhile, an intense diplomatic effort is underway to try to arrange a longer-lasting peace. u.s. second of state john kerry met with foreign ministers of france, turkey, qatar and others in paris. there they called for a week-long extension of the halt

now in place, but the people in gaza want israel to stop the bombardment for good. this was the scene there earlier as people tried to grab belongings from the shattered remains of their homes. they're also pulling bodies out from under the rubble. right after the start of the 12-hour -- right up to the start of the 12-hour halt bombs rained down. over the same 19 days 40 israeli soldiers have been killed. let's go live to stephanie dekker in gaza city. steph, some small relief for people there as they hear about this four-hour extension to the cease-fire. >> reporter: well, the cease-fire, the connotations of that should be positive, but everything that we've seen here today across the gaza strip was one of extreme grief, extreme

devastation. we went to the north. we had teams that went to the central areas in the south. these areas have been completely leveled. people have lost their homes. people have lost many family members. even this morning there was still an air strike, 21 killed of one family. it's been absolutely heart-breaking to see people saying that they have invested all this money in homes and have nothing left. we went to beit hanoun in the north and we were told there was an ins incense air campaign before the cease-fire. one of the men was someone we saw earlier in beit hanoun. we arrive in beit hanoun. most people are leaving. there is death everywhere here. at 12-hour cease-fire that has

negotiated means nothing to those that have lost everything. we're in beit hanoun. this is an area in the north, and they're actually just pulling a body out of the rubble. [ screaming ] that is the sound of absolute grief as they're pulling people out of the houses here. we're being told that just before the cease-fire took place, israeli war planes hit this area in beit hanoun extremely hard. there is areas of complete devastation. as you can see, they're still looking for more bodies, and people here will tell you, we met a lady 70 years old on the side of the road. she said this happened throughout my lifetime. israel has come in and killed us and devastated our lives. when will it stop? [ screaming ]

the cease-fire won't bring the dead back. >> we can see there from your report the cease-fire has brought some devastating scenes for people as they go and return to their homes and see the extent of the destruction. are people willing to accept a cease-fire such as it is, or are they willing to follow hamas' line of thought they want a cease-fire only in place if the blockades for gaza end? >> reporter: that is the majority, the message of most of people that we speak to. they have suffered so much during this war, they have suffered so much during previous wars. it's three wars in seven years. they're certain that a cease-fire won't bring relief in the long term and this will happen again until the core issues are addressed. of course, it is a sticking points whether it comes to the

cease-fire and this diplomatic flurry going on with difficulty to try and address issues. they are complicated issues, but hamas stresses and says we will not stop the siege, and the people agree with this. when it comes down to it, 1.8 million live under siege. they can't leave the borders as we can. they can't fish more than 3 nautical miles. israel controls the goods that comes in. everything is controlled. they will say they're not free to live their life like anyone else in the world. so for them it's a very basic need and demand. it's a bigger issue as well. gaza is not on its own here. it has to do with the palestinian state and the occupied west bank and east jerusalem as a future capital. it's extremely complicated. yes, they will tell you, we have seen cease-fires come and go, every time wars happen again. so they do stand behind hamas when hamas staying steadfast in

saying that the conditions need to be met before this is over. >> steph, thanks very much for bringing us the scene there from gaza. another area where people have been picking through the rubble is shujayea and nicole johns johnson is there. >> reporter: we're in the central part of shujayea and it's utter deaf station in the neighborhood. whole houses have been pummeled to the ground by israeli air strikes as well as tank shelling from the eastern border with israel. you can see that there is nothing left of this neighborhood. all day people have been arriving here to take a look at what's left of their homes, if anything. they're going through the rubble, the concrete looking for anything that's worth salvaging. we've seeing people pick up mattress mattresses, canisters, in one kay we saw a man with his bicycle lifted on his shoulders

as he tried to walk over the rubble to get out of shujayea. it's a really desperate situation here. the people of gaza are hoping that this 12-hour cease-fire will continue, that it will last for longer and give them more time to work out what they'll do next. almost everyone in shujayea has left this area, and they're now living with relatives or the united nations, but they don't know whether they can possibly come home again and start to rebuild their houses and rebuild their lives. >> this temporary truce came after israel had earlier rejected plans for a longer cease-fire. kerry has said that the proposed seven-day truce would allow muslims in gaza to mark the holiday and lessen humanitarian aid. israel and hamas have yet to respond to the proposal. french foreign minister fabias read out a statement for

the other envoys on the meeting. >> translator: we all want a prolong prolonged cease-fire. we agree we need to talk to the palestinian authority about the objectives. we're all in solidarity with the civilians tragical trapped by the conflict. that's why we coordinate our response in the days and weeks to come. >> james is live for us in west jerusalem. when we spoke last hour, you predicted a slight extension to this 12-hour cease-fire. now we've seen four more hours of the truce. >> yes. both sides seem to be agreeing to another four hours taking us to midnight local time. let me tell you how we believe that came about. the israelis first proposed this, and then hamas has told

al jazeera that it, too, will respect a further four hours. that means that the current cease-fire is in place, the one that has been in place and the new extension will run out about five hours from now. that doesn't mean the fighting will start again then. the reason, i think, israel proposed this four-hour cease-fire is that two and a half hours from now the israeli special cabinet is meeting to discuss the situation, their war cabinet to decide what to do about the situation. i think they will decide whether it should be extended beyond midnight. separate developments, laura, in the last few minutes from the united nations. the special coordinator for the middle east peace process who works for ban ki-moon is now trying to get another humanitarian pause, a much longer one, an extendible 24 hours. he put out a statement calling on all parties to respond positively to his call, so we

have four hours agreed by both sides, five hours from now, the extension, and talk about whether it's extended beyond that. that's not clear, and i think we have to look closely how hamas responds and also how the security cabinet respond to this. one bit of news that may play into the security cabinet's decision, the israeli military have announced that four more of their soldiers have died in gaza, taking the total to 40. >> okay. james bays reporting from western jerusalem. thank you very much. the israeli prime minister's spokesman is blaming hamas for not reaching a longer cease-fire agreement. >> israel accepted already a week ago an egyptian proposal for an unconditional cease-fire. this egyptian proposal was supported by the arab league and united nations and many others. hamas says no and hamas unfortunately continues to say

no. yesterday in qatar he put so many preconditions on a cease-fire to make a cease-fire impossible. if the conflict continues, if the bloodshed continues it's because hamas has said no and closed the door on a dip hattic solution. he earlier told al jazeera what is needed to stop the fighting for the palestinians. >> our position was clear. we want a clear position that says a cease-fire will be including the lift of the siege completely on gaza. if that happens, that means we are going to have a cease-fire. the one thing that is stopping the cease-fire is israelis are attacking the palestinians. they have to stop the attack. they put us under siege. they have to stop that. it's clear that we are talking about doing the bold things together. this is the clear guarantee which we are asking for.

if they are serious about the cease-fire, they have to say clearly we are ready to stop our attack against gaza on the civilian one by lifting the siege and militant one by stopping the bombing of gaza. we're not put in conditions or talking about the preconditions. we're talking about the facts on the ground. >> our correspondent lauren -- laurence lee is outside the house of parliament in london. >> reporter: this is now approaching the end of the london demonstration today, one of a series held in different european capitals. this is the house of parliament here. a very large and as you can probably hear still very noisy crowd outside the palace of westminster. we think not as mch as outside the embassy earlier on where we thought it was thousands. we think it is slightly less now, but the voices are very

loud and the messages are similar to what we've seen before. what we've seen today are three basic targets of the anger. obviously, the israeli government and the rejection of the israeli government's claim it's defending itself against hamas rocket fire. we heard speaker after speaker say over and over again is that, in fact, it's the gazans defending themselves against israeli aggression. that is absolutely why they think. they're at the palace westminster because they feel the western government, the british and american grovts and other are guilt kwi of hypocrisy towards the palestinians. when push comes to shove, they support the israeli government. thirdly, there's a lot of anger here against the media. there's sections of the british broadcast media who they claim to be extremely biased. time after time we've seen this repeated. in terms of the messages, some are quite provocative. they claim very openly to be

aents-zionists. they're celebrating that frankly. that's a distinction between being anti-semitic. this is the second saturday in a row now where we've seen thousands and thousands of people on the streets of london. whether or not the israeli government is taking any notice of this, they are determined. i think that these protests will carry on. >> there have been demonstrations, too, in paris. we have the report. >> reporter: the protest is going ahead in paris despite the authorities trying to ban it. we've seen people climbing up to the scat statue here that is symbolic of freedom. i talked to a french woman here that said not only should the bombardment of gaza end but the blockade should also end, too. we've heard people shout long live palestine. we're all palestinians here. there is a large police presence on the streets of paris, all

around this square. there are armed police. there are many, many policemen, too. the authorities do not want to see any violence here in central paris today, but so far this protest has been noisy and hasn't been violent, though. still ahead here on this program, we meet a former cuban revolutionary who made his own museum on a defining moment in the country's history. provocative and pricey. we check out a major retrospective of work by artist jeff coop.

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hello again. here's a reminder of the top stories on al jazeera. hamas and israel have agreed to extend a 12-hour temporary truce by another four hours. that brings it up to midnight local time. at least 1,000 palestinians have been killed in 19 days of israeli attacks on gaza. foreign ministers of the u.s., france, turkey, and qatar and others called for a week-long extension to the cease-fire. they're working on a solution to end the attack by the israeli military and palestinian fighters. there have been more prot t protests against israel. this is the scene in london where thousands gathered. there were protests in paris and berlin. the u.s. closed its elm bass

in libya and evacuated the staff as the security situation deteriorates in tripoli with continued fighting between rival militias. 47 people have been killed since july 13 in battles around tripoli airport. the government is urging militias from the towns to negotiate. we have more from washington, d.c. >> reporter: the u.s. government says that it's suspending operations at the u.s. embassy in tripoli and all embassy staff, including military guards, have been evacuated to tunisia, who take a five-hour drive overnight to get all u.s. personnel out of libya. the reason for the evacuation is very simple. the u.s. says the security situation has deteriorated so much that fighting between various partisan groups in tripoli has come essentially to the embassy's doorstep. in light of the killing of the u.s. ambassador christopher stephens and three other americans on september 11, 2012,

the obama administration made the decision to evacuate the personnel rather than have them put in harm's way. along with this decision to suspend operations at the embassy, which, of course, has an impact on libyans, u.s. citizens inside libya right now are told to depart. there's no evacuation plan for them. they're simply being told to call the airline, call the airport and leave immediately. at least 50 syrian soldiers have been killed by islamic state fighters. most of the troops were beheaded after being captured alive. that's according to opposition activists. 28 islamic state fighters have died since the group launched an offensive in northern syria on thursday. the u.n. human rights investigators say an increasing number of syrian opposition fighters appear to be joining the islamic state group. they say fighters from the group may be added to a list of war crime suspects in syria.

church groups in the uk came together in london to protest the treatment of iraqi christians in mosul. demonstrators made their way to downing street to demand better protection of those in danger. islamic state fighters are in control in mosul, and there are reports over 10,000 christians have been forced to flee to neighboring cities. we talked to residents in mosul about how life has changed since islamic state fighters took over the city. we have this report. >> reporter: since june fighters belonging to the islamic state group have ruled mosul. their black banners are raised over your bases in the city. at this gathering in the city center, there is some support. this video is set to show government employees waiting to get their salaries. some of the fighters talk to people here.

>> translator: it's not like that. you will hear the declarations. >> reporter: but the group has imposed its own rules. it has issued a set of teachings that call on women to cover up and men to pray while smoking has been banned. fighters destroyed a number of statues and graves. they've also ordered shop owners what to sell. >> translator: members of the group told us to stop selling indecent women clothes that violated the teaching of islam. >> reporter: in this marketplace life seems normal, but many people are concerned and too scared perhaps to talk. there are others who praise the new reality. >> translator: the conditions now are 100 times better than before. it's very good, and there is security. >> reporter: but for minorities, conditions are tough. christians were ordered to leave their homes marked in red and

confiscated. most shia muslims have left the city, and sunnis that don't agree with the ideology are being persecuted. mosul is 30 minutes from here, and it's very dangerous to go in. there are people in mosul who say they prefer strict teachings over marginalization and being reduced by sectarian government. he says he remains the governor of the province that includes mosul. he blames the government in baghdad for what's happened. >> translator: the policies and bad practices of the army left people to desire salvation, even if they fell for the devil. these new conditions will go away when the mistakes and bad practices by the islamic state start to appear. >> reporter: mosul is iraq's second largest city. islamic state fighters launched

their assault against government forces to capture it. now they are preparing for a tough fight to keep it. al jazeera on the outskirts of mosul. that was the battle that kickstarted cuba's revolutions. on this day in 1953 they attacked the army barracks. this marks the 61st anniversary. we meet one of the last survi surviving fighters who spent decades building a museum in havana dedicated to that day. >> translator: i wrote that. look. so it occurred to my brothers and i to built it as a seat of honor as a historic continuous to prevent it from dying. 14 of us are left. this one died two months ago. this one dies two months ago. my destiny is here.

my life is enshrined here. all this was in ruins. 40 trucks of debris were taken out. i did it with children that helped me. i didn't get any help from older people, either. i didn't have any money, either, and i hope it will last a long time. besides, i have little time left to live. when i'm dead it's filmed of me walking through here. after i get there i'll be cremated by then, but i'll give the speech. i knew we had to fight after the triumph of revolution of 100 years because we waited 100 years to take off the yoke like oxen. now we're bhaking making progress. it was a victory, because if nots, this wouldn't exist. if we had lost, the yankees would still be running things here. so we're always in dock bat for our life. the libyan president has launched his re-election

campaign with a ral in la paz. thousands of supporters turned out with banners and flags to show their support. he became south american first indigenous president in 2006. he's proposing to expand his program of social reforms. the country has seen strong economic growth over the past year but still remains one of the region's poorest. thousands of people have marched through chile's capital calling for abortion to be legalized. pressure has been mounting on the government to ease the total ban on terminations, which includes cases of rape and incest. in 2012 chilean senate rejected three bills that would have allowed limited access to abortion. provocative and controversial. the u.s. artist jeff koons gets plenty of attention whenever he unveils a new piece of work. 35 years of sculptures,

paintings and other works are now on display on a retrospective at whitney museum of american art. al jazeera has this rt report. >> reporter: take everyday household items and add light and glass cases, and suddenly vacuum cleaners are art. in the 1980 this was one of the first big works by a man that took the art world by storm. >> jeff koons has done an mazing job of breaking boundaries in terms of art and popular culture, the market, celebrity. he's really pushed the limits and the envelope of what an artist can be today. >> now 35 years into a remarkable career, a retrospective of his work takes over all four floors of the top contemporary art venue in the united states. never before has the whitney museum done this for a single artist. that's because there are few as influential with jeff koons who

mixes the mundane with the extraordinary. >> obs and images are metaphors for this and for self-acceptance and the acceptness of others. just to accept things as they are perfect in their own building from what they are as that being. >> it's not without controversy, a version of this aluminum dog that looks like a huge toy made from balloons sold last year for a record $58 million. those prices make koons one of the wealthiest whose expensive work is hardly seen by the pub. one thing is for certain, jeff koons never fails to generate strong reactions. >> i think the best modern contemporary artists challenge us. they ask you questions through their work, and sometimes they even make us feel uncomfortable. >> at the age of 59 koons says

he plans to keep producing work like this for another 30 years at least. al jazeera, new york. you can always keep up to date with all the very latest news on our website. there it is. aljazeera.com. when i met the president, he did say, i borrowed your slogan. >> activist and presidential medal of freedom winner coined the phrase, "yes, we can." the mantra became barack intaps's call to vote. she co-founded the united farm worker's union. >> when you think of this