ISRAELI warplanes resumed their pounding of Gaza today after an Egyptian truce proposal was rejected by the Hamas military wing as not “worth the ink it was written with.”

Tel Aviv had agreed to the Egyptian plan, which was proposed late on Monday. 

It provided for a 12-hour period of de-escalation to begin at mid-morning yesterday. 

Once both sides agreed to halt hostilities, they would negotiate the terms of a longer-term truce.

Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza responded by firing dozens of rockets after the proposed start of the de-escalation, some of them reaching deep into Israel and causing the first Israeli death of the current conflict. 

Israel, which had warned that it would strike Gaza harder than before if Hamas did not halt hostilities, resumed air strikes by mid-afternoon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon had “directed the military to act with intensity against terror targets in Gaza,” said an Israeli official.

Since Israel’s murderous offensive began on July 8, more than 190 Palestinians have been killed in hundreds of Israeli air strikes, while not a single Israeli life has been lost. 

This current Israeli slaughter is the third in just over five years. The previous one, in 2012, eventually ended with the mediation of Egypt.

But Hamas distrusts Egypt’s current rulers, who have tightened the border blockade on Gaza, and the Islamist group rejected Cairo’s plan after saying it hadn’t been consulted.

Osama Hamdan, a senior aide to Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, said that Hamas needed detailed assurances that borders will be opened, particularly the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

“The siege on Gaza must be broken and the people of Gaza should live freely like other people of the world,” said Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk.

“There should be a new equation so that we will not have a war on Gaza every two years.”

The US Senate appropriations defence subcommittee agreed a military spending Bill yesterday that would provide $351 million (£205m) for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system.

Subcommittee chairman Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said that the system is working but insisted that the increase was “crucial,” with Israel facing rockets from Gaza.