Home
Discover Islam
Quran Recitations
Lectures
Fatwa
Articles
Fiqh
E-Books
Women
Boys & Girls 
Articles
Israeli jets bombed Gaza for a third day on Monday, killing several children, amid growing international calls for halt to the violence that has left more than 300 dead.
As Israeli tanks massed ahead of an expected ground operation, warplanes staged dozens of bombing raids in the densely-populated Palestinian enclave overnight, killing seven people including six children, medics said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon repeated his call for an end to the hostilities and urged Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the enclave that it has kept virtually sealed since Hamas seized power there in June 2007.
"He strongly urges once again an immediate stop to all acts of violence," his spokeswoman said.
The Israeli blitz has killed 310 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,400 others, with most of the victims Hamas members, according to Gaza medics.
They said that among those killed overnight were four girls from the same family aged from one to 12 years old.
They died in an air raid in the northern town of Jabaliya that targeted a mosque near their home, while two boys were killed in a raid on the southern city of Rafah, medics said.
China and Japan joined the growing international chorus for a halt to the violence, which has also included Britain, France and Russia.
Beijing said it was "shocked and seriously concerned" at the violence, while Japan called on Israel to "exercise its utmost self-restraint" and for Palestinian militants to halt rocket attacks.
Hamas remained defiant and lashed out at the world for not doing enough to end the Israeli blitz.
Israel is "committing a holocaust as the whole world watches and doesn't lift a finger to stop it," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told reporters.
The Islamist group "reserves the right to hit back at this aggression with martyr operations," meaning suicide bombings of the sort Hamas has not carried out inside Israel since January 2005, he said.
Hamas has responded to the Israeli onslaught by firing nearly 100 rockets and mortars into the Jewish state, killing one man and wounding a handful of others.
Some of the rockets landed some 30 kilometers (18 miles) inside Israel, the farthest yet.
As pressure mounted within the impoverished territory, dozens of Gazans tried to break through the border into Egypt on Sunday, to be stopped by Egyptian police firing into the air.
An Egyptian policeman was killed and another wounded by shots from across the border in the divided town of Rafah, a security official and medics said, adding that the source of the fire was unclear.
Amid vows by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to expand the air blitz and to send in ground troops if necessary, the Israeli cabinet on Sunday gave the green light to call up 6,500 reserve soldiers.
The Israeli offensive sparked protests across the world, with demonstrations held in European capitals, Turkey, Egypt and Syria. At least two Palestinians were killed with clashes with Israeli security forces during protests in the occupied West Bank.
PHOTO CAPTION
A Palestinian man looks at a destroyed building of the Islamic University following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 29, 2008.
AFP
