Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen: “It was never a proper ceasefire”

An Egyptian truce initiative on Tuesday failed to halt rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas militants and other groups.

Israel, which had its first fatality on Tuesday, said senior Hamas militants had died in strikes on Gaza overnight.

Palestinian officials say Israeli raids have killed 204 people so far, including ten overnight into Wednesday.

Among those reported killed was a five-month-old baby.

Israel launched its Operation Protective Edge on 8 July. Its stated objective is to halt Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, but the United Nations says the majority of those killed in Gaza have been civilians.

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli air strike on Beit Lahiya

Israeli security forces remove the remains of a rocket fired at the city of Ashkelon

‘No choice’

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had used recorded telephone messages to warn some 100,000 residents of Gaza to leave their homes before 08:00 (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

The resumption of air strikes comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had “no choice” but to step up the military campaign.

“When there is no ceasefire, our answer is fire,” Mr Netanyahu said.

The Egyptian-backed truce was to have started at 09:00 (06:00 GMT) on Tuesday, after it was approved by Israel’s security cabinet.

Israeli attacks were halted for six hours, but resumed after militants continued to fire dozens of rockets.

Hamas said the terms of the ceasefire did not address concerns over the economic blockade of the Gaza strip, which has caused severe economic hardship for many Palestinians.

After the resumption of operations, Mr Netanyahu said: “This would have been better resolved diplomatically; that’s what we tried to do when we accepted the Egyptian truce proposal.

“But Hamas leaves us no choice but to expand and intensify the campaign against it.”

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.

But a 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”.

Lack of water

Mr Netanyahu had come under strong criticism in Israel for accepting the truce initiative.

His office announced that deputy defence minister Danny Danon had been sacked for comments branding the PM a “failure”.

“It is inconceivable that the deputy defence minister will attack the country’s leadership leading the campaign,” a statement read.

Israel has mobilised tens of thousands of troops on the border with Gaza amid speculation a ground invasion could be launched.

Israeli defence official Amos Gilad said: “We still have the possibility of going in, under cabinet authority, and putting an end to [the rockets].”

US state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Israel had the right to defend itself, but added that “no-one wants a ground war”.

The IDF said militants had fired more than 140 rockets into Israel on Tuesday, and more than 1,100 in the past eight days.

A 38-year-old Israeli man was killed by a mortar shell fired from Gaza near the northern border with Israel, reports said.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday that 560 homes had been destroyed.

The International Red Cross warned that repeated bombing was devastating Gaza’s “fragile water infrastructure”, with hundreds of people left without water.

Are you in the area? Please get in touch by emailing[email protected] putting the word ‘Gaza’ in the subject heading.