The toll of Palestinians killed in Israel's three-day bombing campaign in Gaza rose yesterday to at least 335 as Israeli jets bombed a university's science laboratories and hit the interior ministry in a widening series of air strikes. Early this morning, Israeli aircraft destroyed government buildings in Gaza City, killing 10 more Palestinians and injuring 40 others.
Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, who has already said his government does not want another ceasefire with Hamas, said his army was fighting a "war to the bitter end". Israel declared the border area around Gaza a closed military zone which, together with preparations for a call-up of thousands of reservists, could suggest a large ground invasion is planned next. Barak said the military campaign would be "widened and deepened as needed".
The number of civilians killed in the fighting continued to rise. The UN Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees and has large programmes in Gaza, said it believed at least 57 civilians were among the dead, but said that was a conservative estimate. The overall number of injured is thought to be as high as 1,400, although Gazan hospitals are so overcrowded and short of medicine and equipment that they are turning away all but the most seriously wounded.
The number of rockets fired from Gaza increased to at least 60 yesterday, killing three Israelis. An Israeli soldier also die in a mortar atttack. At least 19 civilians in Israel have now been killed by rockets fired from Gaza in the past eight years. "The continuing aim of the [Israeli] operation is to vastly decrease the capability of Hamas to launch rockets on Israeli civilians and to improve the long-term security situation along Israel's border with Gaza," Captain Benjamin Rutland, an Israeli military spokesman, said.
When asked whether a ground invasion was planned, Rutland said the Israeli military had "a range of tools available to it".
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, called for swift and decisive action to end the "unacceptable" violence, adding that world leaders must step up the pressure for a political solution. In his third statement on Gaza in three days, Ban said he was "deeply alarmed" by the escalation of violence. While recognising Israel's right to defend itself, he condemned its "excessive use of force".
The Bush administration refused to call on Israel to show restraint, instead putting total blame for the conflict on Hamas, citing rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel. "Israel is going after terrorists who are firing rockets and mortars into Israel, and they are taking the steps that they feel are necessary to deal with the terrorist threat," Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said.
"In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire."
Israel had told the US it was not planning to retake Gaza, he added.
Apart from anger in the Arab world, governments elsewhere have been quiet, with little public criticism of Israel - in contrast with previous similar offensives.
The pope had been scheduled to make his first trip to Israel in May, but a spokesman, interviewed by Vatican radio, said the visit was no longer certain. "There is a need to be rather prudent," Father Federico Lombardi added. The pontiff urged both sides to restore a truce and not to yield to the "perverse logic of confrontation and violence".
In Damascus, a senior Hamas leader said the group's conditions for a fresh ceasefire were a halt to Israeli attacks in Gaza and the West Bank as well as a reopening of the crossings into Gaza - conditions which Israel has not accepted in the past.
"We are going to defend ourselves, defend our people and defend our land," Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of the Hamas politburo, told AP. "We need our liberty, we need our freedom and we need to be independent. If we don't accomplish this objective, then we have to resist. This is our right." Hamas leaders in Gaza were in hiding last night.
One of Israel's targets in bombing raids before dawn yesterday was the Islamic University in Gaza City, the territory's main university and one with links to Hamas. Two buildings, housing science and engineering laboratories, were flattened, and six others damaged.
Gaza's streets were empty again and Israeli military drones and jets could be heard overhead. The only crowds were queues at bakeries. Israel again prevented journalists from entering the Gaza strip to report on the bombing.