At least 133 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel's offensive in Gaza, increasingly sidelined as the world focuses on the deadlier conflict in Lebanon, both triggered by the capture of soldiers by militants.

As world diplomats held a conference in Rome seeking to halt the bloodshed caused by Israel's war on the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, 17 Palestinians were killed in multiple Israeli attacks in Gaza City, medics said.

The latest violence flared only hours after Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas demanded an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories following talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday.

"The aggression against the Gaza Strip and the West Bank must stop immediately, followed by a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks," he said.

Rice said: "It is important to end the Gaza crisis. We need to be able to make progress because the Palestinian people have lived too long in violence and the daily humilitations that go along with the circumstances here."

At least six of the dead Wednesday were militants, including four from the armed wing of the governing Hamas movement, one of three groups to claim responsibility for a June 25 raid in which an Israeli soldier was snatched.

At least 133 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have now died since Israel stepped up its ground offensive on July 5 to recover the soldier and end the firing of rockets at Israeli territory, according to an AFP count.

Medics said most of the bodies brought into hospital after the attacks were ripped to pieces, as paramedics took at least 45 wounded people, including two journalists working for Palestine TV, away for treatment.

An Israeli military spokesman said the air force had carried out more than a dozen air strikes targeting "armed gunmen" east of Gaza City as troops mounted a fresh incursion in the outer fringes of the largest Palestinian city.

Gunfire erupted on the ground as Israel stepped up its nearly five-week offensive after a relative lull that has nonetheless put soldiers back in impoverished Gaza less than 10 months after they ended a 38-year occupation.

Security sources reported heavy exchanges of fire as Israeli troops thrust about two kilometres (just over a mile) from the border with Israel.

Apart from six named militants, two three-year-old girls, a 17-year-old boy, and a seven-month-old girl were among the dead, medics said.

With Israel ignoring repeated international calls for restraint, a military spokesman said at least 15 air strikes had all targeted a "armed gunmen" and insisted "we only identified armed gunmen" after the attacks.

Aircraft also struck a Gaza City building used by a controversial paramilitary force set up by the Hamas-led government, and a house in the Gaza-Egypt border town of Rafah, which had already been hit on Tuesday.

"This is part of the general operation with the same goals of dismantling Palestinian terror infrastructure, allowing the return of Corporal Gilad Shalit and stopping the launching of rockets at Israel," an army spokesman said.

Palestinian militants fired a further three rockets into Israel, two of which were claimed by Hamas's Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades military wing, which also said it fired rocket-propelled grenades at Israeli tanks.

The military reported no hits or casualties.

Living conditions for the 1.4 million people in densely packed Gaza have badly deteriorated since the West suspended direct aid to the Hamas-led government, plunging the territory deeper into financial crisis.

Israel has been operating inside Gaza since June 28, when troops rolled back into the territory in a bid to retrieve the soldier.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Nuclear Space Technology at Space-Travel.com

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News