Soldier inspects tank gun barrel
Soldier inspects tank gun barrelReuters

A ceasefire is as good a time as any to select some of the most striking photos of Operation Protective Edge. Here are ten of the most evocative images shot during the campaign by Reuters photographers.

Ashkelon, July 13. Israelis take cover at a bus station as a siren sounds warning of incoming rockets. Despite intensified Israeli military action - which included a commando raid overnight in what was Israel's first reported ground action in Gaza during the fighting - terroists continued to launch rocket after rocket across the border.

Yad Mordechai, July 14. A soldier checks the barrel of a tank at a military staging area outside the northern Gaza Strip.

Re'im, July 14 IDF soldiers dance with members of the Breslov Hasidic stream at a military staging area outside central Gaza.

Jerusalem, July 25. Undercover Israeli policemen detain a Palestinian Arab who threw rocks in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Wadi al-Joz during a protest against the Israeli offensive on Gaza. 

Ashkelon, August 4. Israelis sleep in a public bomb shelter. In Israeli southern communities hit by daily rocket and mortar bomb attacks from the Gaza Strip, some residents remained in their shelters, waiting tensely to see if a 72-hour Egyptian-brokered ceasefire would hold (it did not). Graffiti on the wall is from the current campaign as well as two previous ones.

Beit Hanoun, August 5. Graffiti is written on the wall of a girl's high school that was used by Israeli soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip. the map depicts all of Israel as Palestine. 

Northern Gaza Strip, July 28. IDF soldiers patrol outside the northern Gaza Strip. Hamas terrorists penetrated Israel via tunnel and fought a gun battle with troops as an unofficial truce called for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival disintegrated. Four Israelis were reported to have been killed by cross-border Palestinian mortar fire that day.

Maitar, July 24. A soldier attends the funeral of IDF soldier Liad Lavi, who died after succumbing to wounds he sustained while fighting in Gaza.

Kfar Azar, July 24 Varda, the mother of Israeli soldier Daniel Pomerantz who was killed during fighting in Gaza, salutes next to his grave during his funeral in Kfar Azar, near Tel Aviv. 

Gaza Belt, July 25 IDF soldiers hug each other after ending their duty inside the Gaza Strip, on the Israeli side of the border. 

Khan Younis, August 6: A boy stands next to the remains of a mosque in Khuzaa town, which witnesses said was heavily hit by Israeli shelling and air strikes during Israeli offensive, in the east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. 

Gaza City, July 16: