Israel's air force hit symbols of Hamas power on the third day of its massive assault on Gaza Strip on Monday, striking a house next to the Hamas premier's home, devastating a security compound and flattening a five-story building at a university closely linked to Hamas.
Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak told Israel's parliament in a special session that Israel was not fighting the residents of Gaza "but we have a war to the bitter end against Hamas and its branches."
According to the AP, the three-day death toll climbed to 320, including seven children under the age of 15 who were killed in two separate strikes late Sunday and Monday, medics said. On his part, a Hamas police spokesman, Ehab Ghussein, said 180 members of the Hamas security forces were among the dead. The United Nations agency in charge of Palestinian refugees said at least 51 of the dead were civilians. Over 1400 Palestinians were hurt.
Late on Sunday, Israeli aircraft attacked a building in the Jebaliya refugee camp next to Gaza City, killing a woman, a toddler and three young teenage girls, Gaza Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said. In the southern town of Rafah, a toddler and his two teenage brothers died in an airstrike aimed at a Hamas commander, Hassanain conveyed. In Gaza City, another attack killed a man and his wife.
In another development, Turkey, one of Israel's leading allies in the Muslim world, declared that it was ending efforts to organise peace talks between Israel and Syria. "The continuation of the talks under these conditions is naturally impossible," Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told reporters after discussions with Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Abul Gheit. "To make war on the Israeli-Palestinian track and at the same time make peace on the Israeli-Syrian track -- these two cannot go together," he said, according to AFP.
