Six Palestinians die in Israeli strike at refugee camp: medics
Six more Palestinians were killed by Israeli attack at the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza on Tuesday.
GAZA CITY (AFP) - Six Palestinians were killed by Israeli artillery fire at the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip Tuesday, medics said.
The six include three children and two women. Another 15 people were wounded, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.
Meanwhile, bloodshed in and around Gaza surged Monday with a strike killing eight Palestinian children and a mortar shell leaving dead four in Israel, shattering hopes for an end to three weeks of devastating violence.
It was a bloody start to the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr which began on Monday, with international demands for an end to the fighting falling on increasingly deaf ears.
"In the name of humanity, the violence must stop," pleaded UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after holding long talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him to "stop the violence" and heed international calls for a ceasefire.
But Netanyahu appeared determined to press the offensive.
"We must be prepared for a lengthy campaign," he said in a live broadcast after a mortar attack killed four people in southern Israel, and troops fought a gun battle with Palestinian militants who sneaked across the border.
"We will not end this operation without neutralising the tunnels whose sole purpose is killing our citizens."
As he spoke, the military sent messages to thousands of Palestinians in Shejaiya, Zeitun, Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanun, urging them to flee their homes and seek shelter in central Gaza City as troops prepared to step up their 21-day campaign.
Shortly afterwards, the cloudy skies over Gaza lit up with flashes as the army began an intensive wave of air strikes and heavy shelling across the strip, AFP correspondents said.
Medics said 10 people were killed in the first wave of strikes, among them three children who died with two adults when a shell hit a house in the northern town of Jabaliya, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.
Another five died in a strike on Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, taking to at least 29 the number of killed on Monday, and 1,067 in the 21 days of violence.
