The Shuhada Al-Aqsa
hospital in central Gaza was hit by shelling, leaving five people dead
-- one patient and four relatives, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Hamas
TV showed upper floors damaged.
The Israel Defense Forces
had no immediate comment. Israel has previously said militants use
homes, schools, hospitals and mosques to launch attacks.
Israel killed more than
10 Hamas terrorists who entered the country through tunnels "to attack
two different kibbutzim," or communal areas, "where farmers are trying
to conduct their daily lives," government spokesman Mark Regev told CNN.
The death toll among Palestinians has passed 500. The biggest assault so far took place Sunday in the town of Shaja'ia.
On the Israeli side,
where the Iron Dome defense system helps protect people against missile
attacks every day, the death toll stands at 20 -- 18 soldiers and two
civilians. Thirteen of the soldiers were killed Sunday in a Hamas
attack. Two were Americans: California native Max Steinberg and Sean
Carmeli, from South Padre Island, Texas, the U.S. State Department said.
"We will see Hamas come
out of this substantially weakened, their arsenal of dangerous weapons
diminished," Regev vowed Monday in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
"They will understand they can't shoot at our people with impunity."
But Palestinian leaders
paint a very different picture. "Israeli massacres in Gaza result in
mass civilian killings," official news agency WAFA, run by the
Palestinian government in the West Bank, reported Monday. "At least 515
Palestinians have been killed," the news agency said.
It's unclear how many of
the dead in Gaza were militants. The United Nations has estimated that
70% were civilians. Israel has reported that dozens of terrorists were
killed in Gaza.
Israel blames Hamas for
civilian deaths in Gaza, noting that the group has encouraged people to
stay in their homes despite repeated warnings from Israel in advance of
airstrikes. But some Palestinians have said they feared that even if
they left they could face the same violence anywhere in Gaza. More than
83,000 Palestinians have taken refuge in U.N. facilities.
"Nobody is safe and
nobody can flee anywhere because everywhere is targeted," said Enas
Sisisalem, a mother of two who lives in the al-Remal neighborhood of
Gaza City. "When we hear the shelling my kids will cry."
In a meeting late
Sunday, U.N. Security Council members expressed "serious concern about
the growing number of casualties," according to the body's president,
Ambassador Eugene-Richard Gasana of Rwanda.
The members urged "an
immediate cessation of hostilities" based on the cease-fire that stopped
the 2012 conflict between Israel and Hamas, he said.
Source: CNN
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