7 days of tyranny: Gaza toll hits 177

GAZA CITY: The death toll from Israel’s seven-day air campaign against Gaza militants rose to 177 on Monday, as a UN official said more than a quarter of those killed were children.
In the latest bloodshed, an Israeli missile struck a motorcycle east of the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis, killing 17-year-old Ziyad Al-Najjar, emergency services spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said.
His death came shortly after another strike in the same area, which killed a 37-year-old who was standing with a group of men, Qudra said.
A 60-year-old man was killed in a raid on a house in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, and two other people died in separate strikes elsewhere in the coastal enclave, he said in a statement.
Earlier, a man and a woman wounded in air strikes on Sunday died of their injuries, Qudra said, raising to seven the number of lives lost on Monday as a result of the air campaign.
So far, more than 1,280 have been wounded.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said on Sunday that more than three-quarters of the victims were civilians.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said more than a quarter of them were children.
The Israeli military said it downed a drone launched by Gaza militants on Monday, the first time it encountered an unmanned aircraft since the start of its offensive last week.
French President Francois Hollande said in a televised interview Monday that “Israel can defend itself if it is attacked, but at the same time Israel should show restraint.”
Hamas said it would not end hostilities with Israel without concessions by the Jewish state and that no serious efforts toward a truce had been made. “Talk of a cease-fire requires real and serious efforts, which we haven’t seen so far,” Hamas legislative member Mushir Al-Masri said in Gaza City.
Those include the lifting of Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip, the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and the release of Palestinian prisoners Israel has rearrested after freeing them in exchange for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Egypt on Tuesday. The US top diplomat had telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday to renew an offer to help broker a halt to the conflict.