Meanwhile back in Gaza more rubble is being manufactured:
Israeli air strikes increase Gaza death toll
Eygpt renews efforts to achieve a lasting ceasefire
Israeli air strikes launched before dawn today killed two Palestinians and destroyed much of one of Gaza’s tallest apartment and office buildings, setting off huge explosions and wounding 20 people, Palestinian health officials said.
Israel had no immediate comment on the attacks that took place as Egyptian mediators stepped up efforts to achieve an elusive ceasefire to end seven weeks of fighting.
Palestinian health officials say 2,125 people, most of them civilians, including more than 490 children, have been killed in Gaza since July 8th, when Israel launched an offensive with the declared aim of ending rocket fire into its territory.
Sixty-four Israeli soldiers and four civilians in Israel have been killed.
Palestinian officials said 70 families lived in the 13-storey building, which was listing to one side after the blasts.
The nightmare in Gaza
By Noam Chomsky, Alternet.org – 7 Aug 2014
The relentless siege and savage attacks are punctuated by episodes of “mowing the lawn,” to borrow Israel’s cheery expression for its periodic exercises in shooting fish in a pond as part of what it calls a “war of defense.”
Once the lawn is mowed and the desperate population seeks to rebuild somehow from the devastation and the murders, there is a cease-fire agreement. The most recent cease-fire was established after Israel’s October 2012 assault, called Operation Pillar of Defense.
Though Israel maintained its siege, Hamas observed the cease-fire, as Israel concedes. Matters changed in April of this year when Fatah and Hamas forged a unity agreement that established a new government of technocrats unaffiliated with either party.
Israel was naturally furious, all the more so when even the Obama administration joined the West in signaling approval. The unity agreement not only undercuts Israel’s claim that it cannot negotiate with a divided Palestine but also threatens the long-term goal of dividing Gaza from the West Bank and pursuing its destructive policies in both regions.
Now neither side seems willing to make any painful concessions to achieve a durable cessation of the hostilities.