Earlier statements from the ministry had given the number of dead at around 57 for the morning, but after consultation with hospitals across the Strip the total was revised to more than 127 dead and hundreds more injured over the course of 14 hours.
The Ministry of Health also said that as of Monday night nearly 5,000 homes had been completely destroyed, while tens of thousands more had been partially destroyed.
The United Nations, meanwhile, estimated that more than 215,000 Gazans had fled their home, or more than 10 percent of the besieged coastal enclave’s total population.
Last week, however, Israeli shelling hit at least four UN-designated shelters, killing more than 20 and injuring hundreds.
But the calls appeared to be falling on deaf ears, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning Monday it would be “a lengthy campaign” that would not end before troops destroyed cross-border tunnels used for staging attacks on southern Israel.
A deceptive calm
Tensions rose sharply on Monday which was also Eid day of Muslims, after a shell landed inside the Shifa hospital compound in Gaza City, followed by a blast at a children’s playground in the city’s al-Shati refugee camp, that killed 14, eight of them children.
Residents in al-Shati said an F-16 fired several missiles at a motorized rickshaw in a claim denied by the Israeli army, which also said it had not targeted the hospital.
Shortly afterwards, a mortar killed four soldiers near a kibbutz in southern Israel, the army said, indicating another soldier had been killed in action in southern Gaza.
No ceasefire
On the other hand Hamas denied that it had accepted a deal for a humanitarian ceasefire for 24 hours, contrary to earlier reports.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that “Yasser Abed Rabbu’s statement that Hamas agreed to a ceasefire for 24 hours is not true and has nothing to do with the resistance’s stand.”
“We will consider a ceasefire when Israel commits to it with international guarantees,” Abu Zuhri added.
The Palestinian leadership had earlier declared they were “prepared” for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for 24 hours, after Israeli bombardment since midnight had killed more than 127 Palestinians and injured hundreds, as well as knocking out the Gaza Strip’s sole power plant.
