Gaza under fire, Israel targets television stations

57^min

On the fifth day since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, Arab and International efforts have not yet succeeded in stopping the killing machine and reaching truce between Hamas Movement and Israel.

In this context, two explosions were heard in Tel Aviv, while the Israeli television said that the Iron Dome battery intercepted rockets launched from Gaza.

Earlier in the day, Israel bombed militant targets in Gaza for a fifth straight day on Sunday, launching aerial and naval attacks as its military prepared for a possible ground invasion, though Egypt saw "some indications" of a truce ahead.

Ten Palestinian civilians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza, Palestinian medics said, the highest civilian death toll in a single incident during five days of fighting.

Medics said three women, six children and one man were killed in the attack on the three-story building. Rescue workers were still at the site searching for people who might be buried under the rubble.

In this context, the body of a Palestinian child was found under the ruins of a house which was exposed to Israeli shelling in Gaza.

Sixty-seven Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 12 children, have been killed in Israel's raids, Palestinian officials said.

More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three people and injuring dozens.

Witnesses reported that Israeli forces raided 2 local Palestinian Television stations on Sunday morning, injuring at least 9 Palestinians.

In this context, Russia Today TV Channel reported that an Israeli airstrike destroyed its arab-speaking office in Gaza where no damage was reported.

However, the Israeli Army spokesman declared that 3 Israeli civilians were killed and 21 were injured since the beginning of “Pillar of Cloud” operation against Gaza where the Israeli air force launched 1077 airstrikes that hit 1000 targets.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets at Tel Aviv on Sunday which were shot down by Israel's Iron Dome air shield, witnesses and police said.

Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday, killing a leading militant of the Hamas Islamist group that controls Gaza and rejects Israel's existence, with the declared goal of deterring gunmen in the coastal enclave from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

Gaza's Hamas militants said they launched two Iranian-designed Fajr-5 rockets at Israel's commercial capital which has come under several such bombardments since cross-border fighting with the Palestinian enclave erupted on Wednesday.

POSITIONS:

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius left Paris on Sunday for Israel "to call on all the parties to stop the escalation and offer France's help to reach an immediate ceasefire", his ministry said.

During his one-day trip, the minister will meet with the Israeli authorities and Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, his ministry said in a statement.

In turn, Israeli President Shimon Perez praised the efforts deployed by the Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi to establish a cease-fire in Gaza, accusing Hamas that it had refused its proposition.

The Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stressed there will be no truce without a cease-fire from Gaza.

The Arab League declared that a delegation of Arab ministers will be traveling to Gaza on Tuesday.

However, US President Barack Obama said on Sunday he fully supported Israel's right to defend itself and called for an end to the firing of missiles into Israel by militants inside Gaza in order for a peace process to go ahead.

"There's no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders," he said. "We are fully supportive of Israel's right to defend itself."

Israeli forces struck Gaza militants for a fifth straight day on Sunday and its military prepared for a possible ground invasion, although Egypt, which is trying to mediate, held out hopes that a ceasefire could be reached.

Obama was speaking at a news conference in Thailand during a Southeast Asian tour.

For its part, the Jordanian government reiterated its call for immediately ending the Israeli aggression against Gaza, stressing the Jordanian diplomacy is exerting every possible effort in order to help the Palestinian people.

This as the British Foreign Minister William Hague warned Israel against the implementation of a ground operation against Gaza, noting that it will cost it the loss of the international support. He pointed that such operation may extend the conflict.

A Palestinian official said on Sunday that a possible truce with Israel in Gaza will be reached either Sunday or Monday due to the efforts that Egypt, Qatar and Turkey are exerting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday Israel was prepared to widen its Gaza offensive significantly.

"We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organisations and the Israel Defence Forces are prepared for a significant expansion of the operation," he told his cabinet, in broadcast remarks.

He gave no specifics and made no mention of the possibility of a ground offensive.

A senior Iranian lawmaker denied his country had supplied Palestinian Islamist militants in Gaza with missiles capable of hitting Israel's commercial center, Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam television reported.

REUTERS/LBCI

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