Gaza cease-fire efforts collapse in heavy fighting
Source: AP-Excite
By IBRAHIM BARZAK and MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Egyptian attempts to broker an end to a monthlong war between Israel and Hamas collapsed in heavy fighting Tuesday, with Palestinian militants firing dozens of rockets and Israel responding with airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. At least three Palestinians were killed.
The burst of violence, which erupted in the hours before a temporary truce was set to expire, left the Egyptian mediation efforts in tatters and raised the likelihood of a new round of fighting in a war that has already claimed more than 2,000 lives, most of them Palestinians.
The fighting broke out when Gaza militants fired several rockets into Israel Tuesday afternoon. Israel quickly withdrew its delegation from the Cairo cease-fire talks and resumed its campaign of airstrikes, and fighting continued into the night.
Three people — two women and a 2-year-old girl — were killed in an airstrike on a house in Gaza City, Palestinian medical official Ashraf al-Kidra said. The target of the airstrike wasn't immediately known.
FULL story at link.
Palestinian medics wheel an injured boy on a stretcher into the Shifa hospital after Israeli strikes hit Gaza City, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014. Israel resumed its campaign of airstrikes in Gaza on Tuesday in response to a barrage of Palestinian rocket fire that shattered a truce. The sudden burst of fighting has threatened to derail an Egyptian effort to end a monthlong war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140819/ml-israel-palestinians-74b4f3d432.html
