A cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas was scrapped Tuesday when the militant group launched rockets into Israel just hours after the deal was reached, CNN reported.
Egyptian officials came up with the cease-fire plan to halt airstrikes between Hamas and Israel for eight days. Israel accepted the truce and halted the attacks at around 9 a.m. Tuesday, but six hours later hostilities resumed when rockets came pouring in from Gaza-based militants.
Hamas rejected the cease-fire because Egypt did not discuss with them the terms of the truce, officials from the Islamist militant group said according to USA Today.
Izzedine al-Qassam, Hamas' military wing, said the deal "does not deserve the ink it was written with," the newspaper reported. Agreeing to any such truce would be akin to "surrender."
In addition to eight days of peace, the cease-fire would have opened up Gaza's border for crossing and allowed talks between Israel and Hamas, CNN reported.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who previously lauded Cairo's cease-fire, slammed Hamas for continuing the violence.
"I cannot condemn strongly enough the actions of Hamas," Kerry said according to USA Today.
Palestinians in Gaza have suffered many deaths since the latest attacks between Israel and Hamas began just over a week ago. At least 194 people, said to be mostly civilians, have been killed by Israel's airstrikes and some 17,000 more have been displaced from their homes, according to the United Nations.
U.N. officials said Israel's offensive goes against human rights laws.
"I urgently call on the Israel Security Forces to put an end to attacks against, or endangering, civilians and civilian infrastructure which are contrary to international humanitarian law," Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner of the U.N.'s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, said according to CNN.
Israel said it launched the offensive in response to rockets that were sent from Hamas militants in Gaza. The current death toll has now surpassed the number of those killed during the last Israel-Hamas conflict in 2012, according to CNN.
