Gaza Strip: Girl Killed in Air Strike Six Minutes After Israel Declares Ceasefire

An eight-year-old girl has been killed in an Israeli air strike, despite Israel agreeing to observe a unilateral seven-hour ceasefire.

According to officials in Gaza, the girl died in an Israel Defence Force (IDF) attack on the Shati refugee camp. Another 30 people were wounded.

An AFP correspondent said the strike hit at 07:06 GMT - six minutes after the ceasefire had started.

The IDF said it was looking into the incident, but gave no further comment.

Israel agreed on Monday to observe the temporary ceasefire to allow humanitarian efforts to take place. However, fighting will continue in the southern city of Rafah.

The military wing of the Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas rejected the truce.

"Israel's so-called humanitarian ceasefire is unilateral and it comes at a time when the Zionist enemy wants to distract the world from the massacres they have committed against our people in Gaza," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told the television channel al-Aqsa.

"We don't trust their intentions and we ask our people to take extreme caution."

The Palestinian death toll has exceeded 1,800 since the IDF launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July, in retaliation to the firing of more than 150 rockets from Gaza into Israel.

On 17 July, IDF also began a ground invasion of Gaza to destroy Hamas's underground tunnels.

The UN warned Israel that it might be committing war crimes as at least 70% of Palestinians killed have been civilians.