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The site of an Israeli strike in Gaza City |
More than 20
people have been killed in the latest air raids on Gaza, Palestinian officials
say, as Israel continues its current offensive.
The Palestinian health ministry said most died
in attacks on a house and a cafe in Khan Younis in the south, bringing the
overall death toll to 80.
Militants in Gaza continued firing rockets
into Israel on Thursday, with sirens sounding over southern towns.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned the
situation was "on a knife-edge".
'Tap on roof'
The Israeli military said that it had attacked
108 targets since midnight and that 12 rockets had been fired at Israel, seven
of them intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system.
Israel says its targets in
Operation Protective Edge have been militant fighters and facilities including
rocket launchers, weapons stores, tunnels and command centres.
The
Palestinian health ministry said 17 people including five children and three
women were killed in the strikes on the house and cafe in Khan Younis.
Israel
has not commented on the incidents.
Elsewhere
on Thursday, three people also died in an Israeli strike on a car in western
Gaza City, Palestinian reports say. Reuters said the victims were militants
from Islamic Jihad.
At the scene: BBC's Yolande Knelin Gaza
On a
normal day, the streets of Gaza City are teeming with people and cars honk
their horns as they sit in traffic jams. Now they are eerily quiet.
Occasionally someone strides past purposefully, or a car or ambulance races by.
The shops are all shuttered.
Most
people here are staying at home trying to keep safe. Some will also be catching
up on sleep after a noisy night when Israeli naval ships bombarded this coastal
strip, making buildings shake and babies cry.
Local
television stations can hardly keep up with the pace of news from inside busy
hospitals and outside demolished homes. They show shocking images of dead
children being pulled from the rubble on repeat.
The
increasing number of civilians killed is alarming. Some people have moved in
with other family members who they deem to live in safer areas. Egypt has
opened its border crossing with Gaza for casualties but otherwise there is no
way to leave the Palestinian territory because of the Egyptian and Israeli
blockade.
At the scene: BBC's James
Reynolds on Israel's Gaza border
In the
past 10 minutes I've seen three rockets fired from Gaza into Israel. There was
a flash and giant plumes of white smoke. We don't know where the rockets
landed. I did see Israel fire some Iron Dome missiles at them.
It is
very clear the conflict here is continuing - we are watching it minute by
minute.
I spoke
to people in the village of Kfar Aza near here. It was hit twice last night - a
family home and an art workshop. No-one was in at the time - some people have
gone to stay in other areas.
The
people there support what the Israeli army is doing. All they want is calm for
their community.
Another three people were
killed in a strike targeting a Hamas activist in the town of Beit Lahiya,
Palestinian officials said.
The
Palestinian health ministry said that in addition to the dead, some 500 people
had been injured overall.
Israel says militants have
fired more than 365 rockets from Gaza since Tuesday and that it has attacked
about 780 targets over the same time.
Militant
rocket fire into Israel continued on Thursday, with sirens sounding across the
country.
The
armed wing of Hamas said it had fired two M75 rockets at Tel Aviv. Israel said
Iron Dome had intercepted one.
It also said three rockets had
hit civilian communities in the southern Negev desert and several others struck
the Netivot area.
Meanwhile,
an Israeli military spokesman said an attack on a house in Khan Younis on
Tuesday in which eight people were killed was "a tragedy - not what we
intended", adding people had returned to the building too soon following a
telephone warning.
The
home was said to be that of Odeh Kaware, a local Hamas commander.
Israeli
sources say a second warning was given when a projectile without a warhead was
fired at the building in a tactic known as a "tap on the roof", but
people went back.
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| Israeli leaders say a ground offensive might happen "quite soon" |
"They were told
to leave, they returned, and the missile was already on the way. It was too
late," the Jerusalem Post newspaper quoted an Israeli security source as
saying.
The Palestinian Maan
news agency said dozens of people had gathered on
the roof after the family had been
warned by Israel that the building would be targeted.
Separately, Egyptian
state television said the government had decided to open the Rafah border
crossing on Thursday to evacuate some of those wounded in the Israeli attacks.
Hospitals in North
Sinai have been placed on standby and 30 ambulances sent to the crossing.
Emergency
talks
Overnight Mr Ban
warned of the dangers of escalation, saying the region "cannot afford
another full-blown war".
"The
deteriorating situation is leading to a downward spiral which could quickly get
out of control," Mr Ban said. "The risk of violence expanding further
still is real."
He demanded that Hamas
militants stop firing rockets and also urged the Israeli government to exercise
restraint.
The UN
Security Council is to meet for emergency talks on Thursday.
Israeli
PM Benjamin Netanyahu earlier vowed to "further intensify attacks on
Hamas" in Gaza, saying the militants would "pay a heavy price".
Mustafa
Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, accused Mr
Netanyahu of "preparing a ground operation which could bring a huge
massacre in Gaza".
Israeli
President Shimon Peres told CNN that
a ground offensive might happen "quite soon". The army has been
authorised to deploy up to 40,000 reservists.
Israel's Iron Dome missile shield
1.
Enemy fires missile or
artillery shell
2.
Projectile tracked by
radar. Data relayed to battle management and control unit
3.
Data analysed and
target co-ordinates sent to the missile firing unit
4.
Missile is fired at
enemy projectile
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