Israeli warplanes pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for a third consecutive day on Monday, killing so far 307 Palestinians in the air raids. According to Reuters, Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the military action would go on until the population in southern Israel "no longer live in terror and in fear of constant rocket barrages".
"(The operation could) take many days," said the military spokesman Avi Benayahu. On Sunday, the Israeli cabinet approved a call-up of 6,500 reservists, a government official said.
Hamas remained defiant and the movement's spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called on Palestinian groups to use "all available means, including martyrdom operations."
Broadening their targets to include the Hamas government, Israeli warplanes bombed the Interior Ministry on Monday, Palestinian sources said. Palestinian medical workers said among those killed on Sunday were five young sisters in northern Gaza and three young children in a house near the abandoned home of a senior Hamas militant in Rafah.
Hamas said 180 of its members had been killed and that the rest of the more than 300 dead included civilians, among them 16 women and some children.
The International Red Cross said hospitals in the Gaza Strip were overwhelmed and unable to cope with the casualties.
Hamas said one Israeli air strike destroyed a laboratory building at the Islamic University in Gaza, a major cultural symbol. The Israeli army said the laboratory had been used by Hamas to develop weapons and explosives.
