The death toll of the brutal assault carried out by the Zionist entity on Gaza strip passed 170 as Tel Aviv held off from a threatened ground operation with world making efforts to broker a truce.
The death toll of the brutal assault carried out by the Zionist entity on Gaza strip passed 170 as Tel Aviv held off from a threatened ground operation with world making efforts to broker a truce.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said that 172 people were martyred and another 1230 were injured since the Gaza offensive started last Monday.
The PCHR noted that more than three-quarters of the victims were civilians.
Meanwhile, the Zionist government appeared to be holding off the ground assault with media reports saying that ministers attending a Sunday evening meeting of the security cabinet had decided against putting boots on the ground -- for the time being.
The Palestinian resistance meanwhile, went on in striking the Israeli depth with dozens of rockets. The occupation army said that the resistance has fired 760 rockets since the start of the offensive.
For his part Palestinian Authority Chief, Mahmoud Abbas has called for the United Nations to put the state of Palestine under "international protection" due to the worsening violence in Gaza, and would discuss efforts to end the bloodshed at a meeting of the Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo, officials said.
"At the Arab foreign ministers' meeting ... the State of Palestine will ask all parties present to adopt a draft resolution at the ministerial level to be presented at the next UN Security Council meeting and to follow-up on this matter accordingly at the UN," a statement from the Palestine Liberation Organization said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Israel to scrap plans for a ground offensive, saying too many Palestinian civilians had been killed.
Also Sunday, in a phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated US willingness to help mediate a truce and said he was engaged with regional leaders to "help stop the rocket fire" and allow the calm to be restored, a senior State Department official said.
