Israel continues to strike Gaza
July 22, 2014
The Israeli military bombarded the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, pushing the Palestinian death toll to nearly 600. The latest attacks left plumes of black smoke in the sky over the coastal enclave as ground troops continued their fierce offensive.
US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Egyptian leaders, including President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, in Cairo on Tuesday in an attempt to reach a ceasefire agreement.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was also in the Egyptian capital to hold separate talks with Sissi, before traveling to Jerusalem for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
German-Palestinian family killed
On Tuesday, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman told the DPA news agency that a German-Palestinian family of seven had been killed during Israel's offensive on Monday night. The dead included two parents and five children ages 4 to 12.
The father and mother spent years living and working in Germany and all seven were German citizens. The family returned to the Palestinian Territories 13 years ago.
Most of those killed by Israel during its bombardment of the Gaza strip have been civilians, including more than 120 children. A further 900 children have been injured, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
'No safe place' to hide
"There is literally no safe place for civilians," said UN Office for Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) spokesman Jens Laerke during a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
Nearly 500 homes have been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and 100,000 people have been displaced.
More than 1.2 million of Gaza's 1.7 million people have no or only limited access to water.
"In addition, we do have reports sewage flooding which is a threat to public health," said Laerke.
Israel to finish tunnel offensive before truce
Last week, Hamas, which governs Gaza, ruled out accepting an Egypt-brokered truce until Israel ends its eight-year blockade of the enclave and releases scores of Palestinian prisoners originally released in a 2011 swap deal who were recently rearrested.
On Tuesday, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni ruled out accepting Hamas demands until Israel's ground offensive in Gaza is complete. The operation, which has seen the Palestinian death toll soar, has been aimed at destroying Hamas' tunnel network.
Livni called the demands "unacceptable" and said an immediate ceasefire was not going to happen.
"First of all, it won't happen before we really finish the tunnels project, which was laid out as a strategic objective," she told the Ynet news website. "Second, it won't happen in a way in which Hamas' completely unacceptable conditions are met, because it just won't."
dr/mkg (AFP, Reuters, dpa, AP)