After almost 18 months of unremitting bloodshed and carnage in Gaza, it is little wonder that the overwhelming body of world opinion favours a lasting ceasefire at the earliest opportunity.

Hamas decided not to respond or engage with Israel's counter-proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, an official told Reuters on Wednesday, affirming it is committed to the mediators' plan instead. Israel said on March 29 it conveyed to the mediators a counter-proposal in full coordination with the U.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his troops are seizing an area he called the Morag Axis, a reference to a former Israeli settlement previously located in an area between Rafah and Khan Younis.

Israel has unleashed more bloody attacks on Gaza , warning its offensive will expand into large areas of the Strip in a bid to wipe out diehard Hamas fighters - amid fears for locals and hostages

Israel has proposed an extended truce in Gaza in exchange for the return of about half the remaining hostages, Israeli officials said.

Gaza's health ministry says children are among the dead in an Israeli strike on a UN-run clinic in the strip's north, where people had been sheltering.

For months, Israelis put aside their deep rifts to fight a common enemy. Now, amid a renewed government push for power, they are battling one another.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had little to celebrate on Sunday as they began marking a normally festive Muslim holiday with rapidly dwindling food supplies and no end in sight to the