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On Thursday, Hamas denied that it had reached a ceasefire agreement with Israel, rejecting the claim of an Israeli official that they had reached a deal to stop the crossfire on Friday.
“The news about a ceasefire is incorrect. There are continuing efforts but no agreement until now”, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Earlier, an Israeli official, on the condition of anonymity, had said that Israel had agreed with Hamas on a ceasefire which would begin on Friday at 03:00 GMT. However, another Hamas spokesman also confirmed that earlier reports were false, saying that the Palestinian movement had “no information about this agreement”.
Meanwhile, the Israeli bombardment of Gaza continued for the tenth day, as the death toll rose to 237. Israeli warplanes had struck deserted region in northern Gaza in Beit Lahiya. No casualties were caused by the strike, eyewitnesses said.
A strike on a home in the neighborhood of Sabra in Gaza City killed “at least three children from the same family”, brothers Wassim and Jihad Shuheiber, aged 7 and 8 respectively, and Fulla, their 10-year-old cousin. Another strike soon afterwards in the city of Khan Yunis led to the death of four-year-old Rahaf al-Jubur. Another air strike which struck near Khan Yunis caused the death of 29-year-old Hamza al-Abadleh.
Earlier on Thursday, three mortar shells from Gaza had reportedly struck Southern Israel a few hours after the “humanitarian” ceasefire took effect the Israeli army said. The shells struck the region of Eshkol, which shares a border with Gaza, the army added, and blamed Hamas for the attack, but gave no further details. There were no reports of any casualties or damage from the strikes. Hamas has denied any involvement in the shelling.
The Israeli army alleged that an explosion near the Gaza-Israeli border wounded a soldier, but gave no details of the exact location of the blast. The Israeli military then responded with artillery fire.
Since Operation Protective Shield was launched by Israel on July 8th, 237 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and one Israeli have been killed in the attack. As a part of the operation, Israel has executed 1,750 attacks in Gaza, and most of them have been aerial strikes.
