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On Tuesday, two Palestinians were killed by air strikes after an Egyptian truce bid failed to stop the week-long Israeli campaign in Gaza, raising the death toll to 194.
Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Emergency services, said that a 77-year-man was killed in the city of Khan Yunis and a 24-year-old man was killed in the district of Zeitoun in Gaza City. They were killed by Israeli strikes after a six hour ceasefire was snubbed by Hamas.
The Egyptian-proposed ceasefire had gone into effect at 06:00 a.m. GMT, but, according to Hamas, it wasn’t consulted with about the truce. It added that it wouldn’t halt fire unless a full-fledged agreement with Israeli concessions is reached.
Before the ceasefire at 06:00 a.m. GMT, three people died in separate strikes in Khan Yunis, while two others in the city succumbed to earlier wounds, Qudra said. A woman was also killed in an air strike on the city of Rafah.
The proposal was laid out late on Monday night and had won US support as the Palestinian death toll had reached 192 by then. In an early-morning vote, Israel accepted the Egyptian ceasefire, and Hamas, which was not initially aware of any truce agreement, was offered the truce deal.
Hamas, which wasn’t consulted when terms of the ceasefire were being discussed, rejected the deal as it had none of the concessions it requested for – lifting Israel’s blockade on Gaza, opening the Rafah crossing to Egypt and releasing Palestinian prisoners Israel had re-arrested after it initially freed them in exchange for abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
According to the Israeli army, the truce ended when Hamas fired at the city of Haifa; there has been no confirmation of a rocket landing in the region.
In the afternoon, a rocket from Gaza struck an Israeli civilian near the Erez crossing, the Israeli army said. According to a spokesman for the Israeli emergency services, the 38-year-old was delivering food to troops on duty in the region. This is the first Israeli death in 8 days of cross-border violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel will not hesitate to resume its grueling air campaign in Gaza.“We responded positively to the Egyptian proposal to give a chance to deal with the de-militarization of Gaza.But if Hamas doesn’t accept the ceasefire proposal — and that’s how it seems at this point in time — Israel will have all the international legitimacy to broaden its military activity in order to achieve the necessary quiet”, Netanyahu said.
