The United States gave full backing Tuesday to the announcement of a new long-term ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians after 50 days of violence in and around Gaza.

"We strongly support the ceasefire announcement," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, promising a statement from Secretary of State John Kerry later in the day.

The war in Gaza has sparked several new takes on the Ice Bucket Challenge with Palestinians dumping buckets of rubble over their heads and an Israeli dousing himself with manure.

The craze, where people are filmed pouring buckets of icy water over their heads to raise awareness and money to fight Lou Gehrig's disease, has taken social media by storm.

Israel upped the pressure on Hamas Tuesday, with warplanes hitting two Gaza City highrises on day 50 of their conflict as the warring parties mulled a new Egyptian truce proposal.

There appeared to be little outward sign, however, of interest in the Egyptian proposal which seeks to broker a more permanent end to seven weeks of fighting in Gaza which has so far killed 2,137 Palestinians and 68 on the Israeli side.

Former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis was appointed Monday to a U.N. commission probing Israel's Gaza offensive and the actions of Islamist militant group Hamas, the world body's Human Rights Council said.

The move comes after Lebanese-born British lawyer Amal Alamuddin -- Hollywood star George Clooney's fiancee -- turned down her nomination citing existing professional commitments.

A Palestinian teenager wounded in clashes with the Israeli army three days ago died of his injuries on Monday, medical and security sources said.

Mohammed al-Khatib fears for his life every time he gets behind the wheel. In wartime, providing drinking water to homes and schools in Gaza means dicing with death.

Marking the first day of the new school year in Gaza, dozens of children lined up in the courtyard early on Sunday morning to sing the Palestinian national anthem.

But this year, class did not begin.

Israel said Sunday it had killed a top Hamas financial official in an air strike on Gaza City, as it continued a policy of targeted assassinations against the Palestinian group.

Mohammed al-Ghul "was an important Hamas actor who dealt with transferring funds to build terror infrastructure in Gaza, such as tunnels, and was a key target," Israeli army spokesman Major Arye Shalicar said.

Two rocket launchpads were found Sunday in the southern region of Tyre, from which two rockets were fired overnight Saturday at northern Israel.

“At 22:30 on Saturday unknown assailants fired two rockets from Dheira town”, three kilometers (nearly two miles) from the border with Israel, the army said in communique on Sunday.

Israeli air strikes pounded Gaza Sunday, killing at least a dozen people, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the bloody offensive would continue as long as necessary.

Israel and Hamas, who have been fighting for 48 days, looked unlikely to end their deadly face-off even after Egypt called for an indefinite ceasefire and new truce talks to end a war that has killed more than 2,100 Palestinians and 68 Israelis, mostly soldiers.