ISRAEL announced it would hold fire in Gaza for seven hours today, but once again promptly broke its pledge.

Amid world outrage over a deadly strike on a UN school, the Israelis had little choice but to make some gesture to placate even their own shocked allies.

But the unilateral truce followed Israel’s own peculiar rules and only applied where no Israeli troops were operating.

The Israeli army said the seven-hour “humanitarian window” would take place in all of the Palestinian enclave except Rafah, “where clashes were still ongoing and there was Israeli military presence.”

It also said residents of Abasan al-Kabira and Abasan al-Saghira could return home.

But the announcement was received with distrust by Hamas.

Party spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called on Gazans to proceed with caution.

That caution was justified when Israel launched a bomb attack on a refugee camp in Gaza City that killed an eight-year-old girl and wounded 29 other people.

Also shortly after the ceasefire went into effect two Israeli missiles struck a beach house near Gaza City, killing one and leaving up to 20 people missing, according to the Red Crescent.

Local doctors say 1,829 Palestinians have died since the assault began on July 8.

At least another 9,000 have been hurt, many seriously.

Medical services are said to be running out of supplies and hospitals are failing to cope without regular power in the face of dreadful injuries to civilians and children

“There are very few light injuries in this war,” said Beirut plastic surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta, who was sent a week ago by Medical Aid for Palestinians.

“My feeling is around 70 per cent will have some kind of permanent deformity… they will never be the same again.”

Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian construction vehicle driver after he drove it into an empty bus, killing an Israeli passer-by.

And an off-duty Israeli soldier was injured in a suspected drive-by shooting in Jerusalem.

As the illusory truce period ended, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue operations until “calm” was restored.