News desk :Israel resumed air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, six hours after agreeing to an Egyptian-proposed truce.Israel had earlier accepted an Egyptian truce proposal for the conflict and stopped operations on Tuesday morning. However, the armed wing of Hamas, which controls Gaza, rejected the initiative as a “surrender”.Under the ceasefire proposal announced by Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, high-level delegations from Israel and the Palestinian factions would hold separate talks in Cairo within 48 hours to consolidate the ceasefire with “confidence-building measures”.Hamas leaders have said a ceasefire must include an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza and a recommitment to a truce reached in an eight-day war there in 2012. Hamas also wants Egypt to ease restrictions at its Rafah crossing with Gaza imposed after the military toppled Islamist president Mohamed Mursi last July. The Egyptian proposal made no mention of Rafah or when restrictions might be eased. Hamas has faced a cash crisis and Gaza’s economic hardship has deepened as a result of Egypt’s destruction of cross-border smuggling tunnels. Cairo accuses Hamas of aiding anti-government Islamist militants in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, an allegation the Palestinian group denies.Hamas has said it also wants the release of hundreds of its activists arrested in the West Bank while Israel searched for the three missing teens.The proposed truce also made no mention of the detainees.Egypt won’t give up on its diplomatic efforts after a single setback but the resumption of hostilities means the question of whether Israel will eventually order ground operations is back on the agenda.Under the terms of the Egyptian initiative, the ceasefire should have been followed by a series of meetings in Cairo with high-level delegations from the two sides.There has been no definitive response to the initiative from Hamas. Senior Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan told the BBC it had only heard about the truce initiative through the media and that a ceasefire could not be put in place without the details of any agreement being known.The armed wing of Hamas, the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, dismissed the initiative, saying its battle with Israel would “increase in ferocity and intensity”.US Secretary of State John Kerry said he could not “condemn strongly enough” Hamas’ actions in continuing to fire rockets.Meanwhile, according to the United Nations Israeli attacks have killed some militants, around 70% of the fatalities were civilians and more than 30 are children.An Israeli official, speaking as the Israeli strikes resumed, said: “The prime minister and the defense minister have ordered the Israeli armed forces to take powerful action against terrorist targets in Gaza.”Earlier, Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said that demands the movement has made must be met before it lays down its weapons.Other Palestinian militant groups – Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine – also said they had not yet agreed to the Egyptian offer.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who reached an agreement with Hamas in April that led to the formation of a unity government last month, urged acceptance of the proposal, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli defence official and envoy to Cairo, told Israel’s Army Radio that Hamas had been weakened by the air and sea bombardment of Gaza, having tried “every possible means of striking at Israel.”Hundreds of rockets fired at Israel have caused no fatalities, largely due to Iron Dome. But the strikes are a threat that send people rushing into shelters.Israel had mobilised tens of thousands of troops for a threatened Gaza invasion if the rocket salvoes persisted.”We still have the possibility of going in, under cabinet authority, and putting an end to (the rockets),” Gilad said.In overnight attacks before the brief ceasefire, Israel said it had bombed 25 sites in Gaza. Palestinian medical officials said a 63-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman were killed.Palestinian officials say at least 192 people have been killed by Israeli air strikes launched eight days ago.At least four Israelis have been seriously injured since the violence flared, but none have been killed.
