A Hamas website says Israel has fired missiles at the homes of four of its senior leaders as it resumed bombardment of Gaza, following a failed Egyptian cease-fire effort.

Health officials say the Palestinian death toll in nine days of fighting has reached 204.

Wednesday's bombings came after Hamas rejected an Egyptian truce proposal on Tuesday and instead launched more rockets at Israel.

Israel warned Hamas would pay a high price. It also called on tens of thousands of residents of areas close to the Gaza-Israel border to leave their homes, presumably ahead of more airstrikes.

Among those ordered to leave where the patients of a rehabilitation hospital.

But hospital director Basman Ashi says everyone is staying put and that foreign volunteers have arrived to serve as human shields.