Gaza death toll climps up to 194

The total number of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip over the past week has reached 194, according to a Palestinian Health official.

"At least 194 people have been killed and around 1400 injured, many seriously, since the start of the Israeli military operation," said Ashraf al-Qodra, the spokesman of Health Ministry on Tuesday morning.

For a week, Israel has waged a crippling air blitz against the Gaza Strip - dubbed "Operation Protective Edge" - with the stated aim of ending rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.

Since last Monday, Israeli warplanes have struck more than a thousand targets across the besieged enclave, which is home to around 1.8 million Palestinians. Israeli ground troops remain amassed on the strip's borders, meanwhile, in advance of a possible ground assault.s

Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, have continued to fire hundreds of rockets into Israel - some of which have reached Tel Aviv - in response to the ongoing offensive.

No Israeli fatalities have been reported thus far.