Gaza toll hits 194 as truce bid fails

GAZA CITY: The death toll from Israel's week-long campaign in Gaza rose Tuesday to 194, as two Palestinians were killed in renewed strikes after an Egyptian truce bid failed.
Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said a 24-year-old man was killed in Zeitun, east of Gaza City, Tuesday evening, according to a news agency.
Earlier, a 77-year-old man was killed in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
They were the first people to be killed since Israel renewed its air strikes after observing for six hours a ceasefire that Hamas snubbed.
The Egyptian-proposed ceasefire went into effect at 0600 GMT, but Hamas said it had not been consulted on the truce and would not halt fire without a full-fledged agreement involving Israeli concessions.
Before the 0600 GMT deadline, three people were killed in two separate air strikes on Khan Yunis, and two other men in the city succumbed to injuries sustained in earlier raids, Qudra said.
Also in the south, a woman was killed in an earlier strike on Rafah.
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. Four people have been seriously wounded.
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.
The bloodiest day so far was Saturday when 56 Gazans were killed.
Israel began Operation Protective Edge before dawn on Tuesday in an attempt to halt cross-border rocket fire by militant groups.
Since then, 922 rockets have hit Israel, while another 207 have been intercepted by its Iron Dome air defence system, the army said.