REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, GAZA/JERUSALEM - At least 78 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's Gaza offensive, Palestinian officials said on Thursday as militants in the enclave kept up rocket attacks on Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities.
As Israeli officials seemed to hint at a possible invasion by ground forces, eight members of one family, including five children, were killed in an early morning air strike that leveled two homes at Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border, the Palestinian Health ministry said.
Israel's military made no comment on what would be the deadliest strike since its began its assault on Tuesday. The defence minister spoke of "long days of fighting ahead".
US President Barack Obama told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call that the United States was willing to help negotiate a ceasefire, the White House said.
French President Francois Hollande voiced his concern at the civilian deaths in the Palestinian enclave and called for a truce. A spokeswoman for US Secretary of State John Kerry, who like Hollande spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said of possible escalation: "Nobody wants to see a ground invasion."
The offensive followed a build-up in violence after three Jewish students were killed in the occupied West Bank last month and a Palestinian youth died in a suspected revenge attack.
Medical officials in Hamas-dominated Gaza said at least 60 civilians, including a four-year-old girl and a boy aged five who were killed on Thursday, were among the 78 Palestinians who have died in Israeli attacks since Tuesday.
Netanyahu said in a televised statement: "So far the battle is progressing as planned but we can expect further stages in future. Up to now, we have hit Hamas and the terror organizations hard and as the battle continues we will increase strikes at them."
Netanyahu discussed options with his security cabinet as air strikes continued and officials hinted at a possible ground offensive. There was no word on when or if this would happen.
"We have long days of fighting ahead of us," Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said.
Sirens sounded in and around Jerusalem in the evening and residents ran for cover as a number of rockets were launched towards the holy city. Two were intercepted and others fell in open ground. The remnants of one rocket fell on a building in an Israeli community in the hills near Jerusalem, police said.
The only Israeli casualties on Thursday were two people who had minor wounds when a mortar exploded near the Gaza border.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon briefed the Security Council on Thursday, condemned the rocket attacks and urged Israel to show restraint. "Gaza is on a knife edge," he told reporters.
Israel says it has struck more than 860 targets in an offensive intended to halt persistent rocket fire at its own civilian population. The rocket fire escalated after Israeli forces arrested hundreds of Hamas activists in the West Bank while hunting for the abducted teenagers.
Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika