Heart Wrenching Funeral Photos Of Boys Killed By Israeli Strike In Gaza.

In the aftermath of the Four boys killed on Gaza beach, both Israel and Hamas ceased fighting for five hours Thursday for a humanitarian truce requested by the United Nations, Reuters reports.

 The brief cease-fire, however, has since come to an end, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday that his country's military has launched a ground offensive in Gaza.

More than 160 civilians, including more than 40 children, have been killed in Gaza since July 7, when Israel launched its anti-Hamas military operation. "According to preliminary information, 77 [percent] of Palestinian fatalities so far have been civilians, raising concerns about respect for international humanitarian law," the UN wrote in a July 16 report.

The Israeli military has reportedly launched an investigation into the strike that killed the four cousins. They say the strike had been intended for Hamas militants and called the children’s deaths a “tragic outcome,”

Tyler Hicks, a New York Times photojournalist who was in a nearby hotel when the Gaza beach strike occurred and photographed the boys' bodies as they were carried away, wrote in an essay Thursday that "there is no safe place in Gaza right now."

“Bombs can land at any time, anywhere,” he wrote. “A small metal shack with no electricity or running water on a jetty in the blazing seaside sun does not seem like the kind of place frequented by Hamas militants, the Israel Defense Forces’ intended targets. Children, maybe four feet tall, dressed in summer clothes, running from an explosion, don’t fit the description of Hamas fighters, either.”

In the hours after the four boys' deaths, Gaza was overcome with grief and fury. According to CNN, hundreds of people attended the children's funeral Wednesday and "angry chants filled the air.

 Culled