AFP, Gaza City :
Israel upped its pressure on Hamas on Tuesday, with warplanes hitting two Gaza City highrises on day 50 of their conflict as the warring parties mulled a new Egyptian truce proposal.
There appeared to be little outward sign, however, of interest in the Egyptian proposal which seeks to broker a more permanent end to seven weeks of fighting in Gaza which has so far killed 2,336 Palestinians and 68 on the Israeli side.
Several back-to-back truce agreements which brought relief to millions earlier this month, collapsed in a storm of violence on August 19, with the renewed fighting killing another 115 Palestinians and an Israeli child.
Israel, which pulled its negotiating team out of the Cairo talks a week ago, has repeatedly said it would not negotiate under fire, conditioning a return to the table on a complete halt to cross-border rocket fire.
Although the Palestinians said they would be prepared to accept the new Egyptian offer, they would only do so after hearing Israel’s response to the proposal, a senior official told AFP on Monday.
On the battlefront, Israeli warplanes kept up their pressure on Hamas with a series of air strikes on Gaza City, which killed two and wounded scores, medics and witnesses said.
Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said an early strike killed two men in a street in the northern Al-Nafaq neighbourhood.
Some time later, warplanes fired on a 16-storey mixed-use complex known as “Little Italy” in the northern Nasser neighbourhood, wounding 25 people, Qudra said.
Witnesses said an F16 fired at least six rockets at the tower block, in which there were 60 apartments and a commercial complex including dozens of shops, completely destroying it.
One witness said residents had fled the building after the Israeli army sent them pre-recorded warning messages.
“The army told them to leave immediately and they all ran out into the street to find shelter,” he told AFP.
Shortly afterwards, warplanes fired on the 14-storey Al-Basha building in the western Rimal neighbourhood, causing massive damage and wounding another 15 people, witnesses and medics said.
