Tel Aviv residents were full of praise for Israel's Iron Dome interceptor rockets that officials say has shot down some 90 percent of Palestinian rockets aimed at Israeli population centres.
Israel's military said Sunday (July 13) Palestinian militants had fired more than 800 missiles.
Eight batteries of the system, made by the state-owned Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd and partly funded by Washington, have been rotated around Israel to tackle unprecedented long-range salvoes by Hamas guerrillas. The most recent battery was hurriedly deployed only two days ago, Israel's Defence Ministry said.
Rafael said it had been working on improvements to Iron Dome, which is designed to fire guided missiles at rockets that threaten to hit populated areas while ignoring others.
There have been few injuries and no fatalities from rockets that hit towns or cities - results that also reflect Israel's extensive investment in air raid sirens and shelters.
Despite the rocket fire, cafes, restaurants and Tel Aviv's beachfront appear crowded and busy as usual.
Thousands fled their homes in a Gaza town on Sunday after Israel warned them to leave ahead of threatened attacks on rocket-launching sites, on the sixth day of an offensive that Palestinian officials said has killed at least 160 people.
Militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip kept up rockets salvoes deep into the Jewish state and the worst bout of Israel-Palestinian bloodshed in two years showed no signs of abating, and Western foreign ministers meeting on Sunday said a ceasefire was an urgent priority.
Israeli forces dropped leaflets into the town of Beit Lahiya near Gaza's northern border with Israel. They read: "Those who fail to comply with the instructions to leave immediately will endanger their lives and the lives of their families. Beware."
The Israeli military told the residents of three of Beit Lahiya's 10 neighbourhoods to get out of the town of 70,000 by midday on Sunday. U.N. officials said some 4,000 people had fled south to eight schools run by the world body in Gaza City.
A senior Israeli military officer, in a telephone briefing with foreign reporters, said Israel would "strike with might" in the Beit Lahiya area from the late evening hours on Sunday.
He did not say if this would include an expansion of an air and naval offensive into a ground operation in the north of the narrow, densely populated Mediterranean enclave.
"The enemy has built rocket infrastructure in-between the houses (in Beit Lahiya)," the officer said. "He wants to trap me into an attack and into hurting civilians."
At schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza City, Beit Lahiya residents arrived in donkey carts filled with children, luggage and mattresses, while others came by car or taxi. One man, still in his pajamas, said some inhabitants had received phone calls warning them to clear out.
"What could we do? We had to run in order to save the lives of our children," said Salem Abu Halima, 25, a father of two.
The Gaza Interior Ministry, in a statement on Hamas radio, dismissed the Israeli warnings as "psychological warfare" and instructed those who left their homes to return and others to stay put.
Dozens of houses in parts of Beit Lahiya were levelled by Israeli bulldozers during a month-long Gaza war in late 2008 and early 2009. Israel says such structures provide cover for militants and rocket launchers.
The leaflets marked the first time Israel had warned Palestinians to vacate dwellings in such a wide area. Previous warnings, by telephone or so-called "knock-on-the-door" missiles without explosive warheads, had been directed at individual homes slated for attack.
PROTESTS
Hundreds of protesters took the streets on Sunday (July 13) in Karachi, New Delhi and Damascus to protest against the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
In Pakistan protesters carried banners condemning Israeli attacks as angry protesters then set fire to flags of the United States and Israel. "We are against Israeli attack on Gaza and that's why we are protesting here," demonstrator Bhupen Singh said in New Dehli during a protest outside the Israeli embassy.
Protesters in Syria demonstrated in front of the United Nations headquarters in Damascus.
"We demonstrate against the mass, daily bombardment that takes place every minute on Gaza's children because nothing should make the truth silent. Everybody should express what they feel," protester Sawssan said before a statement was handed to a U.N. employee.
International pressure on both sides for a return to calm has increased, with the U.N. Security Council calling for a cessation of hostilities and Western foreign ministers due to meet on Sunday to weigh strategy.
Hostilities along the Israel-Gaza frontier first intensified last month after Israeli forces arrested hundreds of Hamas activists in the Israeli-occupied West Bank following the abduction there of three Jewish teenagers who were later found killed. A Palestinian youth was then killed in Jerusalem in a suspected Israeli revenge attack.
REUTERS
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