:salam2:
**GAZA CITY: **An Israeli missile flattened a two-storey house in a residential neighbourhood of Gaza City yesterday, killing at least 11 civilians, mostly women and children, as Israel expanded its military offensive.
The attack was the single deadliest incident of the five-day-old Israeli operation and raised a toll that was already the highest number of civilians killed in one day, according to Gaza medics.
The deaths brought to 26 the number of Palestinians killed yesterday, in the bloodiest day so far of Israel’s campaign against the Gaza Strip.
The overall death toll in some 100 hours of relentless Israeli air strikes stood at 72, with at least 660 injured, health officials said.
At least 10 children, five of them babies and toddlers, and five women were among those killed yesterday, in attacks that came even as diplomatic efforts intensified to broker an end to the bloodshed which began on Wednesday.
US President Barack Obama said he had been in touch with the leaders of Israel, Egypt, and Turkey in an effort to halt the fighting. He also cautioned against a potential ground invasion, warning it could only deepen its death toll.
An Israeli envoy arrived in Cairo yesterday and held talks with Egyptian officials on a ceasefire, according to Egyptian security officials and Nabil Shaath, a top aide of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who was in the Egyptian capital.
Hamas is linking a truce deal to a complete lifting of the border blockade on Gaza. It also seeks Israeli guarantees to halt targeted killings of its leaders and military commanders.
Palestinian fighters fired more than a 100 rockets at Israel, including two at Tel Aviv.
Israel’s announcement yesterday that it was widening its campaign to target homes of fighters appeared to mark a new and risky phase of the operation, given the likelihood of civilian casualties in the densely populated territory of 1.5 million Palestinians.
The day’s deadliest strike hit the home of the Dalo family in Gaza City, reducing the structure to rubble. Frantic rescuers pulled the bodies of several children from the ruins of the house, including a toddler and a five-year-old, as survivors and bystanders
screamed in grief. Later, the bodies of the children were laid out in the morgue of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.
Among the 11 dead were four small children and five women, including an 80-year-old, Gaza health official Ashraf Al Kidra said.
Israel also struck two high-rise buildings housing media outlets, damaging the top floor offices of the Hamas TV station Al Aqsa, and a Lebanese-based broadcaster Al Quds TV.