DHAKA: Israel carried out fresh attacks on southern Gaza Strip amidst a hunt for one of its missing soldiers believed to be captured by Hamas, as the new wave of violence raised the Palestinians toll to 1669.

Israel also threw cold water over efforts to reach a solution to the crisis when it announced that it would not attend Egyptian-hosted negotiations for a new truce. A Palestinian delegation was to fly to Cairo for negotiations, which would include Hamas’s demand that Egypt ease movement across its border with blockaded Gaza. But Israel said it would not send its envoys as scheduled.

The United Nations, meanwhile, came out with a stunning statistics that at least 296 Palestinian children and adolescents have been killed since Israel launched its current offensive on July 8.

“Children make up for 30 per cent of the civilian casualties,” said the UN children’s agency Unicef, adding that the toll was based on deaths which it was able to verify and was likely to rise.

“The number of child casualties during the last 48 hours may rise as a number of incidents are pending verification,” it said in a statement.

Unicef stressed that its figures are “cross-checked to the best extent possible in the current situation... subject to change based on further verifications.”

“Between 8 July and 2 August 2014, at least 296 Palestinian children were reported killed as a result of airstrikes and shelling by Israel aerial, naval and ground forces,” it said.

Source: Gulf News

BDST: 1055 HRS, AUG 03, 2014