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| An emergency rescue worker carries a child's body found in the Daloo family house rubble following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012. Palestinian medical officials say at least 10 civilians, including women and young children, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. |
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- An Israeli missile ripped through a two-story home in a residential area of Gaza City on Sunday, killing at least 11 civilians, including four young children and an 81-year-old woman, in the single deadliest attack of Israel's offensive against Islamic militants.
The
bloodshed was likely to raise pressure on Israel to end the fighting,
even as it pledged to intensify the offensive by striking the homes of
wanted militants. High numbers of civilian casualties in an offensive
four years ago led to fierce criticism and condemnation of Israel.
In
all, 73 Palestinians, including 37 civilians, have been killed in the
five-day onslaught. Three Israeli civilians have also died from
Palestinian rocket fire.
President Barack
Obama said he was in touch with players across the region in hopes of
halting the fighting, while also warning of the risks of Israel
expanding its air assault into a ground war.
"We're
going to have to see what kind of progress we can make in the next 24,
36, 48 hours," Obama said during a visit in Thailand.
On
the ground, there were no signs of any letup in the fighting as Israel
announced it was widening the offensive to target the military
commanders of the ruling Hamas group.
The
Israeli military carried out dozens of airstrikes throughout the day,
and naval forces bombarded targets along Gaza's Mediterranean coast.
Many of the attacks focused on homes where militant leaders or weapons
were believed to be hidden.
Palestinian
militants continued to barrage Israel with rockets, firing more than 100
on Sunday, and setting off air raid sirens across the southern part of
the country. Some 40 rockets were intercepted by Israel's U.S.-financed
"Iron Dome" rocket-defense system, including two that targeted the
metropolis of Tel Aviv. At least 10 Israelis were wounded by shrapnel.
Israel's
decision to step up its attacks in Gaza marked a new and risky phase of
the operation, given the likelihood of civilian casualties in the
densely populated territory of 1.6 million Palestinians. Israel launched
the offensive Wednesday in what it said was an effort to end months of
intensifying rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
In
the day's deadliest violence, the Israeli navy fired at a home where it
said a top wanted militant was hiding. The missile struck the home of
the Daloo family in Gaza City, reducing the structure to rubble.
Frantic
rescuers, bolstered by bulldozers, pulled the limp bodies of children
from the ruins of the house, including a toddler and a 5-year-old, as
survivors and bystanders screamed in grief. Later, the bodies of the
children were laid out in the morgue of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital.
Among the 11 dead were four small children and five women, including an 81-year-old, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said.
More
than a dozen homes of Hamas commanders or families linked to Hamas were
struck on Sunday.
Though most were empty - their inhabitants having
fled to shelter - at least three had families in them. Al-Kidra said 20
of 27 people killed Sunday were civilians, mostly women and children.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said that "the Israeli people will pay the price" for the killing of civilians.
Israel
sought to place the blame on militants, saying they were intentionally
operating in places inhabited by civilians. The military has released
videos and images of what it says are militants firing rockets from
mosques, schools and public buildings.
"Hamas
is using the Gaza population as human shields," said Brig. Gen. Yoav
Mordechai, the chief Israeli spokesman. "They are exploiting crowded
residential urban areas."
He acknowledged,
however, that it was not clear whether the militant targeted in Sunday's
attack was killed, despite earlier claims of success. "I still don't
know what became of him," Mordechai told Channel 10 TV.
The
prospect of mounting civilian casualties could quickly change the
momentum of Israel's operation. Israel launched the offensive on
Wednesday with a lightning airstrike that killed Hamas' military chief.
Since then, it has carried out a blistering campaign of more than 1,200
airstrikes, targeting suspected rocket storage and launching sites.
Israel
also struck two high-rise buildings housing media outlets, damaging the
top-floor offices of the Hamas TV station, Al Aqsa, and a
Lebanese-based broadcaster, Al Quds TV, seen as sympathetic to the
Islamists. Six Palestinian journalists were wounded, including one who
lost a leg, the Gaza press association said.
Foreign broadcasters, including British, German and Italian TV outlets, also had offices in the buildings.
Lt.
Col. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, said the
strikes targeted Hamas communications equipment on the rooftops. She
accused the group of using journalists for cover.
Israeli
officials expressed readiness to take the offensive even further with a
ground invasion of Gaza. Israel has mobilized thousands of forces and
columns of armored vehicles along the border ahead of a possible
incursion.
"The Israeli military is prepared
to significantly expand the operation," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu declared at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.
The
threats come at an important crossroads - with a fateful choice between
further escalation or agreeing to a cease-fire with Hamas. Israel and
the West consider Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, to be a
terrorist group.
Obama and British Foreign Secretary William Hague cautioned against a potential Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
Obama
blamed Palestinian militants for starting the round of fighting by
raining rockets onto Israel and said the U.S. supported Israel's right
to protect itself. "Israel has every right to expect that it does not
have missiles fired into its territory," Obama said.
Hague
also said Hamas "bears principal responsibility" for initiating the
violence, but made clear the diplomatic risks of an Israeli escalation.
"A ground invasion is much more difficult for the international
community to sympathize with or support," he said.
A
ground operation would carry grave risks, given the likelihood of heavy
casualties on both sides. The Israeli offensive into Gaza four years
ago left hundreds of civilians dead, drawing fierce international
condemnation and war crimes accusations.
Israel
says its intelligence and technology have been perfected since then to
minimize civilian casualties. But Gaza's crowded urban landscape makes
it all but impossible to avoid them altogether, as Sunday's attack in
Gaza City illustrated.
"In this case, you
can't avoid collateral damage if they position the rockets in densely
populated areas, in mosques, school yards," said Israeli Vice Premier
Moshe Yaalon. "We shouldn't be blamed for the outcome."
Avihai
Mandelblit, a recently retired chief advocate general in the Israeli
military, said that from a legal perspective, "there's no immunity to
anyone if you put weapons inside of civilian infrastructure."
But
he acknowledged the sight of dead civilians could create a public
relations debacle for Israel. "As more civilians will get hurt, the
legitimacy clock is going to click faster to end this operation," he
said.
Obama said he had been in touch with
Netanyahu as well as the leaders of Egypt and Turkey as international
attempts to broker a cease-fire continued. Egypt, which often serves as a
mediator between Israel and Hamas, has taken a leading role in the
efforts.
Israeli TV stations said an Israeli
envoy traveled to Cairo on Sunday, and was returning to Israel with
details of cease-fire proposals. Channel 2 TV, citing American
diplomats, said Netanyahu's personal envoy, Yitzhak Molcho, would be
headed to Washington in the coming days.
Hamas
officials said their supreme leader, Khaled Meshaal, also held talks
with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, and that Turkish Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was to visit Gaza on Tuesday.
Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers remain far apart on any terms for a halt to the bloodshed.
Hamas
is linking a truce deal to a complete lifting of the border blockade on
Gaza imposed since Islamists seized the territory by force. Hamas also
seeks Israeli guarantees to halt targeted killings of its leaders and
military commanders. Israeli officials reject such demands.
They
say they are not interested in a "time-out," and want firm guarantees
that militant rocket fire into Israel will end. Past cease-fires have
been short lived.
