Ceasefire remote in Gaza

Israel pounded dozens of high-profile targets in Gaza on Tuesday, shutting down the strip's only power plant (pictured above in smoke) used for multiple services such as pumping water. Gaza municipal officials urged residents to ration water usage.

The United Nations said more than 200,000 Palestinians in Gaza were sheltering at 85 UN facilities - amounting to over 10 percent of the coastal enclave's population of roughly 1.7 million people.

Egypt said it was revising a truce plan after Hamas on Tuesday abruptly rejected a proposal portrayed by the West Bank-based Palestinian leadership as acceptable.

Israel wants Gaza's armed groups stripped of weapons. Hamas and its allies want an Israeli-Egyptian border blockade lifted.

Hamas rebuffs PLO truce suggestion

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Hamas "gave no approval" to a truce endorsement issued by senior Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) official Yasser Abed Rabbo. Hamas again insisted that Israel lift blockades of Gaza.

Shelling hit the Jabliya refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday evening, killing 10 members of a family, and raising Tuesday's Palestinian death toll to 109, according to medics.

Israel puts its death toll since July 8 at 53 soldiers and three civilians killed. These include 10 soldiers killed in cross-border combat on Monday that prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn of a long conflict ahead.

Palestinian losses total more than 1,200. These include at least 239 children aged up to 17, according to UNICEF.

Israel: More rockets fired

Israel's military said Palestinian militants on Tuesday fired 52 more rockets into Israel, adding that it would take another week to destroy cross-border tunnels used by Hamas fighters to attack Israelis.

Multiple reports indicated that the scope of Israel's current Gaza assault equated to its invasion five years ago that ended with Israel withdrawing after hitting Hamas hard.

Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said Israel's latest bombardments from air, sea and land was intended to "gradually increase pressure" on Hamas.

Israel was "determined to strike this organization and relieve us of this threat," Lerner told Associated Press.

Ceasefire calls unheeded

Both US President Barack Obama and the UN Security Council have issued calls for an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian supplies to reach Gaza.

Israel and Egypt imposed closures on the strip after Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, defeating forces, including Fatah, loyal to the West Bank-based Palestininian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Solidarity with Jewish community in Germany

In Germany, police said they had detained an 18-year-old youth of unidentified nationality over an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in the western city of Wuppertal.

Some 250 people held a solidarity rally in support of the local Jewish community in Wuppertal on Tuesday evening.

The head of Germany's 200,000-strong Jewish community, Dieter Graumann, said the fire-bombing attempt had "left us aghast."

German leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel and social democratic Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, recently condemned a rise in anti-Semitic protests and assured Jews that the revival of Jewish life in Germany was safeguarded.

ipj/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)