A Palestinian mourner carries the body of four-year-old girl Sarah Sheik al-Eid after she was killed along with her father and uncle in a Israeli military strike the previous day, during their funeral in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. AFP Photo GAZA CITY: Israel carried out at least four air strikes against Gaza on Tuesday afternoon, resuming raids after a truce that failed to get of
f the ground, AFP correspondents and eyewitnesses said. An AFP correspondent reported one air strike east of Gaza City, and eyewitnesses reported a second in the centre of the city. Witnesses also reported strikes in Nusseirat in central Gaza as well as in the Khan Yunis area in the south. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. The raids came shortly after Israel’s army announced it was ending a ceasefire it had observed since 0600 GMT under the terms of an Egyptian truce proposal. Hamas had effectively rejected the proposal, saying it was not consulted and would not halt fire without a broad deal that included concessions it has sought. “Hamas has fired 47 rockets since we suspended our strikes in Gaza at 9:00 am. As a result, we have resumed our operation against Hamas,” the army said on its official Twitter account. “Following six hours of indiscriminate rocket fire at Israel, the IDF (army) has resumed operational activities against Hamas,” military spokesman Lieutenant Peter Lerner said on his Twitter account. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior Israeli official told AFP that the military had been ordered to “act forcefully”. “After Hamas and Islamic Jihad refused the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire and fired dozens of rockets at Israel, the prime minister and defence minister have ordered the IDF to act forcefully against the terror targets in Gaza.” Meanwhile, death toll from Israel’s week-long campaign in Gaza rose Tuesday to 192, after another six Palestinians died, four of them in strikes before Israel accepted an Egyptian ceasefire. Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said three people were killed in two separate air strikes on the southern city of Khan Yunis. And two other men in the city succumbed to injuries sustained in earlier raids, he said. Also in the south, a woman was killed in an earlier strike on Rafah, taking Tuesday’s toll to six dead, he said. All of the fatalities took place before Israel accepted a 0600 GMT ceasefire proposed by Egypt, despite its rejection by Hamas. Late Monday, the death toll rose above that of the previous major conflict between Israel and Hamas militants, an eight day confrontation in November 2012 which claimed the lives of 177 Palestinians and six Israelis. So far, no Israelis have been killed in the week-long fighting in and around Gaza, with only four people seriously injured. The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said on Sunday, when the toll stood at over 150, that three quarters of the dead were civilians. And on Monday, a senior UN official said more than a quarter were children. –AFP
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