Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza relentlessly on Thursday, causing a growing number of civilian casualties, as the UN Security Council was to meet urgently over Israel's spiraling confrontation with Hamas.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza, but Israel showed no sign of letting up, with five children among 22 Palestinians killed in air strikes carried out since midnight.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed even tougher action against Hamas, despite growing international calls for a ceasefire in the worst confrontation in and around Gaza since 2012.
So far, there have been no Israel deaths but Hamas has kept up a steady barrage of rocket fire on cities in central Israel, sending people fleeing for cover as air raid sirens rang out in cities as far away as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and even Haifa.
- Empty streets -
The violence has emptied the streets from Gaza City to Tel Aviv, as both Israelis and Palestinians take shelter indoors for fear of being caught in the open when the next rocket or missile hits.
On the beachfront in Tel Aviv, cafes which would normally have been bursting at the seams at the height of tourist season, sat empty, their waiters nervously checking the phones for any news of an incoming missile.
But in cafes in Gaza, the story was much darker after an Israeli missile slammed into a coffee shop in Khan Yunis, killing eight as they watched a World Cup semi-final match. Another 15 people were injured.
And Israel has confirmed preparations are under way for a possible ground attack, with tanks seen massing along the border and Netanyahu facing mounting pressure from hardliners within his coalition to put boots back on the ground in the territory from which Israel pulled all troops and settlers in 2005.
"If the fire continues, we do not rule out a ground incursion," President Shimon Peres told CNN on Wednesday, warning it could happen "quite soon".
Threat to the region
"Gaza is on a knife edge. The deteriorating situation is leading to a downward spiral which could quickly get beyond anyone's control," UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned ahead of an emergency meeting of the Security Council at 1400 GMT.
"The risk of violence expanding further still is real. Gaza, and the region as a whole, cannot afford another full-blown war," he said.
Ban spoke with Netanyahu, urging him to exercise maximum restraint, although he described the Gaza rocket attacks as "unacceptable and must stop".
He also spoke with Abbas, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and US Secretary of State John Kerry over the crisis, which drawn calls for restraint from Washington and the European Union.
As the number of victims in Gaza rose to 78, Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing, with hospitals in north Sinai placed on standby to receive the wounded, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.
Five children and four women were among 22 people killed in Israeli air strikes on Thursday, medics said, with most of the bloodshed in Khan Yunis.
One missile attack on Khan Yunis struck two homes, killing four women and four children, while another air strike killed a five-year-old boy in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP.
750 raids in 48 hours
The Israeli military said it had hit more than 300 targets overnight, raising the total number of strikes in just over 48 hours to 750, in Israel's largest military operation in Gaza since November 2012.
The air offensive has so far failed to staunch the rocket fire, with 82 rockets hitting Israel on Wednesday and another 21 intercepted. Fifteen more struck Israeli territory on Thursday morning, with seven more intercepted by Iron Dome.
So far, neither side has shown any sign of backing down, as Israel approved the call-up of 40,000 reservists as it stepped up its preparations for a possible ground assault.
Analysts said Hamas and its backers had a clear aim for their military build-up: to drag Israel into a ground war hoping to inflict a heavy number of casualties.
Israeli forces entering Gaza would face likely attack by Hamas anti-tank weapons, including Kornet missiles used by Hezbollah in the 2006 Lebanon war, and improvised explosive devices, they said.
There would also be a possibility of capturing Israeli soldiers for prisoner swaps.
To date, the death toll stands at a staggering 78 civilians and it is believed that the number is increasing.
The Washingto Post reported on Wednesday morning, two Israeli missiles struck the side yard of Zaher Hamdan, who was found an hour later slumped against a neighbor's wall in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, sobbing and cursing the Israelis.
"The Israelis feed off blood," he said. "If they want to knock down my house, knock it down! But they kill. They love killing."
Hamdan said he had nothing to do with Hamas or other militant groups. He said there were no phone calls or warning rockets.
Hamdan's sister-in-law, Sahar al-Masri, 40, and her 14-year-old son, Ibrahim, were sitting beneath a shade tree in the garden when two rockets struck. The second one killed them both.
Two of Masri's daughters were wounded. One of the daughters, a toddler, was vomiting and crying in the back of an ambulance at nearby Beit Hanoun Hospital, her right leg and chest pocked by shrapnel wounds.
A surgeon at the hospital, Ayman Hamdan, said the young girl's mother and brother died of massive bleeding. "They were dead when they arrived," the physician said. "The rockets are designed to kill. They are very powerful, very lethal."
The surgeon said his small hospital has treated nine patients who were seriously injured by Israeli airstrikes in the past two days. Eight other patients either died in surgery or arrived dead in the ambulance.
"We are not seeing wounded or dead fighters," he said. "Most of these people look to me like civilians."
Many Israelis want their military to do what it takes to stop the rocket fire from Gaza.
Miri Eisin, a military analyst and former deputy head of the Israel's combat intelligence corps, said that while it is sad that civilians are sometimes killed, Israel has the right to hit its enemy Hamas where he lives, which is in dense urban areas.
"We have the right to protect our citizens," Eisin said. "We do not put them in the line of fire."
Yaniv Mizrachi runs a shwarma restaurant near city hall in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, where air raid sirens have been sounding hourly. He defended the current military operation as the only way to restore a "normal life" to his city.
"This has been going on for years," he said. "This time I hope the army sorts it out once and for all."
A Gaza-based journalist and activist Omar Ghraieb shared his personal account of the devastating situation there in his blog GazaTimes.blogspot.com.
Elsewhere in Malaysia, Aqsa Syarif chairman associate professor Dr. Hafidzi Mohd Noor said reconciliation of Fatah and Hamas, and the formation of a unity government is the reason behind Israeli offensive on the Gaza strip.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza, but Israel showed no sign of letting up, with five children among 22 Palestinians killed in air strikes carried out since midnight.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed even tougher action against Hamas, despite growing international calls for a ceasefire in the worst confrontation in and around Gaza since 2012.
So far, there have been no Israel deaths but Hamas has kept up a steady barrage of rocket fire on cities in central Israel, sending people fleeing for cover as air raid sirens rang out in cities as far away as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and even Haifa.
- Empty streets -
The violence has emptied the streets from Gaza City to Tel Aviv, as both Israelis and Palestinians take shelter indoors for fear of being caught in the open when the next rocket or missile hits.
On the beachfront in Tel Aviv, cafes which would normally have been bursting at the seams at the height of tourist season, sat empty, their waiters nervously checking the phones for any news of an incoming missile.
But in cafes in Gaza, the story was much darker after an Israeli missile slammed into a coffee shop in Khan Yunis, killing eight as they watched a World Cup semi-final match. Another 15 people were injured.
And Israel has confirmed preparations are under way for a possible ground attack, with tanks seen massing along the border and Netanyahu facing mounting pressure from hardliners within his coalition to put boots back on the ground in the territory from which Israel pulled all troops and settlers in 2005.
"If the fire continues, we do not rule out a ground incursion," President Shimon Peres told CNN on Wednesday, warning it could happen "quite soon".
Threat to the region
"Gaza is on a knife edge. The deteriorating situation is leading to a downward spiral which could quickly get beyond anyone's control," UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned ahead of an emergency meeting of the Security Council at 1400 GMT.
"The risk of violence expanding further still is real. Gaza, and the region as a whole, cannot afford another full-blown war," he said.
Ban spoke with Netanyahu, urging him to exercise maximum restraint, although he described the Gaza rocket attacks as "unacceptable and must stop".
He also spoke with Abbas, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and US Secretary of State John Kerry over the crisis, which drawn calls for restraint from Washington and the European Union.
As the number of victims in Gaza rose to 78, Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing, with hospitals in north Sinai placed on standby to receive the wounded, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.
Five children and four women were among 22 people killed in Israeli air strikes on Thursday, medics said, with most of the bloodshed in Khan Yunis.
One missile attack on Khan Yunis struck two homes, killing four women and four children, while another air strike killed a five-year-old boy in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP.
750 raids in 48 hours
The Israeli military said it had hit more than 300 targets overnight, raising the total number of strikes in just over 48 hours to 750, in Israel's largest military operation in Gaza since November 2012.
The air offensive has so far failed to staunch the rocket fire, with 82 rockets hitting Israel on Wednesday and another 21 intercepted. Fifteen more struck Israeli territory on Thursday morning, with seven more intercepted by Iron Dome.
So far, neither side has shown any sign of backing down, as Israel approved the call-up of 40,000 reservists as it stepped up its preparations for a possible ground assault.
Analysts said Hamas and its backers had a clear aim for their military build-up: to drag Israel into a ground war hoping to inflict a heavy number of casualties.
Israeli forces entering Gaza would face likely attack by Hamas anti-tank weapons, including Kornet missiles used by Hezbollah in the 2006 Lebanon war, and improvised explosive devices, they said.
There would also be a possibility of capturing Israeli soldiers for prisoner swaps.
To date, the death toll stands at a staggering 78 civilians and it is believed that the number is increasing.
The Washingto Post reported on Wednesday morning, two Israeli missiles struck the side yard of Zaher Hamdan, who was found an hour later slumped against a neighbor's wall in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, sobbing and cursing the Israelis.
"The Israelis feed off blood," he said. "If they want to knock down my house, knock it down! But they kill. They love killing."
Hamdan said he had nothing to do with Hamas or other militant groups. He said there were no phone calls or warning rockets.
Hamdan's sister-in-law, Sahar al-Masri, 40, and her 14-year-old son, Ibrahim, were sitting beneath a shade tree in the garden when two rockets struck. The second one killed them both.
Two of Masri's daughters were wounded. One of the daughters, a toddler, was vomiting and crying in the back of an ambulance at nearby Beit Hanoun Hospital, her right leg and chest pocked by shrapnel wounds.
A surgeon at the hospital, Ayman Hamdan, said the young girl's mother and brother died of massive bleeding. "They were dead when they arrived," the physician said. "The rockets are designed to kill. They are very powerful, very lethal."
The surgeon said his small hospital has treated nine patients who were seriously injured by Israeli airstrikes in the past two days. Eight other patients either died in surgery or arrived dead in the ambulance.
"We are not seeing wounded or dead fighters," he said. "Most of these people look to me like civilians."
Many Israelis want their military to do what it takes to stop the rocket fire from Gaza.
Miri Eisin, a military analyst and former deputy head of the Israel's combat intelligence corps, said that while it is sad that civilians are sometimes killed, Israel has the right to hit its enemy Hamas where he lives, which is in dense urban areas.
"We have the right to protect our citizens," Eisin said. "We do not put them in the line of fire."
Yaniv Mizrachi runs a shwarma restaurant near city hall in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, where air raid sirens have been sounding hourly. He defended the current military operation as the only way to restore a "normal life" to his city.
"This has been going on for years," he said. "This time I hope the army sorts it out once and for all."
A Gaza-based journalist and activist Omar Ghraieb shared his personal account of the devastating situation there in his blog GazaTimes.blogspot.com.
Elsewhere in Malaysia, Aqsa Syarif chairman associate professor Dr. Hafidzi Mohd Noor said reconciliation of Fatah and Hamas, and the formation of a unity government is the reason behind Israeli offensive on the Gaza strip.
