Great diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the conflict between Israel and Palestine seem to fall through while many innocent civilians and children die at Gaza Strip.

The dead toll exceeds 220 and among the victims are many young children.

23 Palestinians, including many children, were killed yesterday raising the death toll to 220, while a representative of the Palestinian authorities reported that the injured exceed 1,570 people.

Yesterday afternoon, four children were killed in Gaza beach when a missile was fired by an Israeli gunboat ship.

Late last night Reuters reported that Israel agreed to set brief ceasefire for six hours for humanitarian reasons. The senior Israeli official who announced this decision to the agency news noted that it has not been decided yet when Israel will declare ceasefire.

At the same time, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Egypt and met with Hamas official, Moussa Abu Marzouk, in Cairo to discuss the Egyptian initiative to end the violence between Israel and the Islamist organization.

This meeting is the first sign showing that efforts to achieve a ceasefire between the two sides are continued, even though Hamas rejected the Egyptian proposal on Monday.

Meanwhile, turmoil is caused in the Israeli cabinet, since many members of the parliament question the way Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handles Gaza crisis.

According to the Guardian, this was the reason that Deputy Secretary of Defense, Danon, was removed from his position, who is also a member of Netanyahu’s party.

Danon told Israeli media that Hamas humiliated Israel, when they set their conditions for peace, after Netanyahu’s decision to accept the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire.

The organization denied that they were asked about the conditions of the truce and they did not accept the proposal.