Wednesday, July 16, 2014 | 8:16 a.m.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A senior Hamas official says the Islamic militant group has formally closed the door on the Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire aimed at ending the conflict with Israel.
Sami Abu Zuhri said Wednesday in a text message to The Associated Press that the group "informed Cairo today officially that we don't accept the proposal they made."
Israel had held out hope that the cease-fire deal plan could be salvaged. But Abu Zuhri says it has been definitively rejected.
Israel accepted the proposal and briefly halted airstrikes Tuesday, but it has renewed them as Palestinian militants continued firing rockets at its territory.
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