Fighting raged on Tuesday between the Israeli military and Hamas militants in Gaza, as civilians continue to suffer the dire consequences. Palestinian officials says that more than 100 people have been killed in Israeli shelling and airstrikes since Tuesday morning, with the total figures adding up to almost 1,200 since the conflict began.

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The United Nations reports that a night of intensified violence has exacerbated Gaza's human displacement crisis. Chris Gunness, spokesman of the UN agencies in Gaza, said more than 180,000 Palestinians are crammed into 82 evacuation shelters as of Tuesday night.

Hopes of a longer ceasefire after a series of short-duration lulls last week now seem more remote than ever. Hamas has declared that "there is no middle ground" about a ceasefire until Israel ends its "aggression and siege" of Gaza.

On Hamas-run television, Mohammed Deif, chief of the Hamas military wing, said, "The enemy kills the civilians and we kill the soldiers... the enemy sends his soldiers to their death in Gaza. The Israeli enemy will not have security as long as we don't have security for our people."

The statement followed an earlier announcement from Palestine's officials news agency WAFA that said the Palestinian leadership was offering a 24-hour truce and that both Hamas and Islamic Jihad supports it.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, denied their group ever supported the initiative by Palestinian leaders.

Abu Zuhri said the resistance "speaks for itself."

"When we get guarantees from the Zionists for an international mediation regarding a humanitarian pause, then we can consider it," Abu Zuhri said on Hamas TV.

In Jerusalem earlier Tuesday, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it would be up to Hamas if a ceasefire were at all possible, and that the "ball is in Hamas' court."

The spokesman, Mark Regev, said on CNN that Israel is "ready for a period of sustained peace and security." But he recalled that it was Hamas that has consistently rejected peace overtures, including the Egyptian initiative for a ceasefire.

Palestinian officials say 1,191 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting that began on July 8. Most of the dead are civilians. More than 7,000 have been injured.

Israel has lost 53 soldiers and three civilians - two Israelis and a Thai worker. Five soldiers were killed when Hamas militants slipped out of a tunnel inside Israel and fired at the soldiers.

Gaza's only power plant was hit by artillery strikes Tuesday, leaving thousands of homes in Gaza without power, and Palestinian officials demanding of Israel to supply them with electricity. 

TagsJerusalem, Netanyahu, Hamas