Israeli warplanes hitting two Gaza City highrises

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israel upped pressure on Hamas Tuesday, with warplanes hitting two Gaza City highrises on day 50 of their conflict as the warring parties mulled a new Egyptian truce proposal.

There appeared to be little outward sign, however, of interest in the Egyptian proposal which seeks to broker a more permanent end to seven weeks of fighting in Gaza which has so far killed 2,336 Palestinians and 68 on the Israeli side.

Several back-to-back truce agreements which brought relief to millions earlier this month, collapsed in a storm of violence on August 19, with the renewed fighting killing another 115 Palestinians and an Israeli child.

Israel, which pulled its negotiating team out of the Cairo talks a week ago, has repeatedly said it would not negotiate under fire, conditioning a return to the table on a complete halt to cross-border rocket fire.

Israeli air strike on Gaza City kills wife, infant daughter of elusive Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif

An Israeli air strike on Gaza City kills the wife and infant daughter of elusive Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif as Truce talks between Israelis and Palestinians collapse, Israel's Haaretz says.

"The wife of the great leader was martyred with his daughter," in a strike on Tuesday night, Hamas' exiled deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

He said nothing about the fate of Mr Deif himself. He said Israel had been looking for "an excuse to target a big Hamas leader".

Egyptian attempts to broker an end to a month-long war between Israel and Hamas militants collapsed in heavy fighting Tuesday, with Palestinian militants firing dozens of rockets and Israel responding with airstrikes across the Gaza Strip.