Local Lebanese television networks decided on Thursday to air a unified newscast in solidarity with the ongoing Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, a step that was endorsed by Information Minister Ramzi Jreij.

The initiative was launched by As Safir newspaper's Editor in Chief Talal Salman in coordination with prominent Lebanese and Palestinian figures, and it is scheduled to take place on Monday.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA said Thursday it was investigating after finding 20 rockets hidden in one of its vacant schools in the Gaza Strip.

It condemned the incident as a "flagrant violation" of international law and said the rockets had been removed and the "relative parties" informed.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday launched his most bitter attack yet against Israel over its air campaign in the Gaza Strip, accusing Israel of seeking a "systematic genocide" of the Palestinians.

Erdogan, a pious Muslim who sees himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause, has in the last days intensified his rhetoric against Israel as he presents himself as a leader of the entire Islamic world ahead of August 10 elections in Turkey.

The sound of a blast cut through the air on Gaza's beach, drawing people out of seafront buildings to see a crowd of terrified children sprinting along the sand.

They screamed as they ran, smoke rising behind them from an Israeli strike.

Hamas demanded changes Wednesday to an Egyptian proposal to end the deadly conflict with Israel in and around Gaza, a Palestinian official said.

Hamas's demand came as the Palestinian death toll from Israel's punishing air campaign, now in its ninth day, rose to 220 Palestinians dead after the Islamist movement snubbed the truce plan on Tuesday even though it was briefly respected by Israel.

The United States is doing "everything in our power" to end the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday, as he kept up contacts with regional leaders.

"Our concern is to have a legitimate ceasefire and see if we can find a way to stop the conflict and killing so we can get to the real issues that are underlying it," Kerry told reporters as he met his counterpart from Luxembourg.

More than 200 people have been killed and 1550 others wounded in the ongoing Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, as Hamas officials communicated to Egyptian authorities on Wednesday their rejection of the proposed truce deal.

Hamas rejected the ceasefire proposal which Egypt put forward this week, complaining it had not been a party to the discussions.

Israel urged 100,000 Gazans to flee their homes on Wednesday, but the warning was largely ignored despite an intensification of the military's nine-day campaign after Hamas snubbed a ceasefire effort.

As the punishing Israeli operation resumed pace, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas was to travel to Egypt and Turkey in search of regional support for an immediate end to the fighting after an attempt at an Egyptian-brokered truce collapsed.

An Israeli surveillance drone flew over the southern city of Tyre on Wednesday evening after several rockets were launched for the past four consecutive nights towards Israel from a region in the port city.

The state-run National News Agency reported that an “Israeli surveillance drone flew as of 8:50 pm in the southern region's airspace above Tyre.”

Arab foreign ministers in Cairo early Tuesday called on "all parties" to accept an Egyptian proposal to end the raging conflict between Israel and Hamas, after the Palestinian militant group signaled its rejection of the truce.

The ministers, meeting for an extraordinary Arab League session, also backed a Palestinian demand for "international protection."