Palestinians quaking in terror as death toll grows
Palestinians carry the body of four-year-old Lama Hamdan during her funeral in the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday
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THE air attacks and rocket salvoes continued last night despite talks of a truce.
Medical officials put Palestinian casualties since the air strikes began on Saturday at 384 dead and more than 800 wounded. A UN agency said that at least 62 of the dead were civilians. In all, four Israelis have been killed since the operation began.
Foreign ministers from the quartet of Middle East peace brokers -- the UN, the United States, Russia and the European Union -- called yesterday for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and southern Israel after a telephone consultation.
Dependent
About 1.5 million Palestinians live in Gaza, which has one of the highest population densities and demographic growth rates in the world. Most Gazans live on less than $2 a day and up to 80pc are dependent on food aid, according to aid groups.
Hamas took over Gaza from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction in fighting in June 2007. The Islamist group has rejected demands to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace deals.
Despite winter rain, which could impede a ground operation, Israeli warplanes carried out attacks on Hamas targets for a fourth day, killing 13 Palestinians. They included sisters aged four and 11.
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit the city of Beersheba, 42km inside Israel yesterday, medical officials said, the deepest such attack yet by militants.
There were no reports of casualties inside Israel. A day earlier three Israelis were killed by rockets. Israel says its air strikes are aimed at ending such attacks.
According to internal Israeli assessments, the air offensive had destroyed a third of Hamas' rocket arsenal but the faction's guerrilla army remained largely intact, Israel's Channel 10 reported.
"None of us can say how long it will take," Israeli President Shimon Peres said after being briefed at the Defence Ministry about Israel's deadliest Gaza campaign since the 1967 Middle East war, when the territory was captured from Egypt.
A separate proposal, under discussion by Turkey and Egypt, as well as by several Arab governments, called for a ceasefire and reopening of Gaza's crossings with Israel, diplomats said.
Israel said it had yet to be approached on the idea. "Any truce proposals, to be credible, must include guarantees about how it will be imposed on Hamas," an official said.
In Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, two sisters were killed in an air raid near their home, medical workers said.
The area has been a launching ground for cross-border rocket attacks.
Israel has said it would allow more aid trucks into Gaza. Dozens of trucks loaded with goods were seen heading to Gaza crossings yesterday.
- Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza
