Israel Rejects Cairo Ceasefire Talks

A Palestinian delegation arrived in Cairo for new truce talks but Israel turned its back on those negotiations and said it would not send envoys as scheduled.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the US not to force a truce on Israel.

The Israeli leader aggressively told the Obama administration “not to ever second-guess me again” and demanded that he should be “trusted.”

Mr Netanyahu added that he now “expected” the US to fully support Israel’s offensive.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Yuval Steinitz said there was “no point” negotiating with Hamas.

Even Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who is the member of Mr Netanyahu’s security cabinet generally identified as more peace-oriented than her colleagues, said any agreement on the issue was still far off.

“You want to talk about lifting the blockade? Not with us and not now,” she told news website Ynet TV.

Meanwhile, 10 people died in an Israeli attack on a UN school in Rafah, which wounded another 35.

The school was sheltering people displaced by the conflict.

Witnesses said that the attack happened while people had been queuing for food.

It was the second attack on a UN shelter in less than a week.

Palestinian officials reported more than 150 Israeli air strikes across Gaza and the Israeli military admitted unashamedly that it had it struck dozens of targets.

It said this included five mosques that it alleged were concealing weapons and claimed that the Islamic University was also targeted because it was being used as a research and weapons manufacturing site for Hamas.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said 520,000 people had been displaced by the fighting — more than a quarter of Gaza’s population.

Health Ministry officials said the death toll had now risen to 1,762 Palestinians and another 9,212 people have been injured.

Among those killed were 398 children, 209 women and 74 elderly men.

There were also 64 soldiers and three civilians killed on the Israeli side.