Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha
Gaza death toll soared past 2100 as a total of 18 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes today, said reports.
A Hamas source has said that the chief of its armed wing, Mohaamd Deif, whom Israel targeted in a strike today killing his daughter and wife, is still alive.
"The head of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades Abu Khaled is still alive and leading the military operation," a source close to the Islamist movement told AFP, using Deif's nom-de-guerre.
The UN relief agency has said that some 70,000 Palestinian children will be staying in its schools in Gaza as they have nowhere to return to.
Egypt, which has been sincerely trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, today expressed its "profound regret at the breach of the ceasefire in Gaza" and urged both the warring sides to resume negotiations.
Israel had recalled its negotiators from Cairo after Gaza violated the ceasefire by firing three rockets towards Israel.
Justifying the strike targeted to kill the Hamas military chief, an Israeli cabinet minister has said that he deserves to die like Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden was killed.
"Mohammad Deif deserves to die just like [Osama] bin Laden. He is an arch murderer, and as long as we have an opportunity, we will try to kill him," Interior Minister Gideon Saar told army radio, according to an AFP report.
Accusing Israel of trying to kill its chief, the armed wing of Hamas, Ezzadine al-Qassam brigade threatened that the Jewish state had "opened a gateway to hell", and the Hamas would in retaliation target Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport with rocket fire, said a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Pierre Krahenbuhl, the chief of UN relief agency UNRWA, said that it would take years to rebuild Gaza, given the mammoth amount of destruction.
In an interview to the Reuters, he added that it will take more than a decade to see any improvement in the lives of Gazans unless Israel lifted a blockade on its territory.
The Israeli attempt to assassinate the chief of Hamas may backfire and instead reinforce their resolve to fight Israel, says a report in the Haaretz.
"If they (Israel) miss him (or only manage to wound him, again), and kill his family members, the hatred and determination to continue the conflict will only increase," adds the report.
Slamming Hamas for being the first to break the ceasefire every time, Israel said that it was the eleventh time that the militants had violated or rejected the ceasefire.
Meanwhile, as the cross-border fire started, Israel says Gaza had launched some 70 rockets since the ceasefire was violated.
Hamas says Israel tried to assassinate the chief of its armed wing named Mohammed Deif, however the strike ended up killing 11 others including his his pregnant wife and infant daughter, reports said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon is “gravely disappointed” as truce talks between Hamas and Israel fails.
Hamas said Wednesday that an Israeli air strike killed the wife and child of its Gaza military chief, as a temporary ceasefire went up in smoke and Cairo truce talks froze, as per AFP report.
"The wife of the great leader was martyred with his daughter," in a strike Tuesday night, Hamas's exiled deputy leader Mussa Abu Marzuk wrote on Facebook while saying nothing about the fate of Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades commander Mohammed Deif himself, the report stated.
An Israeli air strike Wednesday on a house in the Gaza Strip town of Deir el-Balah killed a pregnant woman, three young children and two male relatives, emergency services said, the AFP news report stated.
Hamas militants fired rockets into Israel and has vowed to target Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport.
After a 10-day lull, heavy fighting resumed between Israel and Hamas resulting in 11 casualties on Wednesday after the failure of talks in Cairo.
The fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed on Wednesday after truce talks between them collapsed.
The violence started after Israel accused Hamas militants of breaking the truce hours before it was due to end.
Egypt also called back its negotiators from Cairo where the talks were underway followed by Palestinian negotiators who blamed Israel for the failure in talks.
First Published: Wednesday, August 20, 2014, 10:38
