Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Israel’s air force fired a missile at a house in Gaza City late Sunday, killing at least eight people, residents and hospital officials said. The strike followed a decision to step up attacks against Islamic militants in response to rocket fire from Gaza.
Israeli air attacks on militant targets earlier in the day killed another three Palestinians.
The attack on the house was the deadliest airstrike since Tuesday, when Israel started reprisals for the rocket barrages.
Residents said the house belonged to Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Haya, and six of the dead were members of his family. Al-Haya was not home and was not harmed, they said. He was one of the Hamas representatives in cease-fire talks with Fatah and was attending an Egyptian-sponsored truce meeting just before the strike, residents said.
The missile hit a room used as a meeting place for the extended family, relatives said. Hospital officials said eight people were killed and 13 injured.
The Israeli military said the missile hit a group of armed militants outside a house.
At Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, there was pandemonium as cars brought in the victims, some of them dismembered by the blast.
Al-Haya went to the hospital to visit his wounded relatives.
“We will go ahead despite the challenges, despite the martyrs, despite the pain that I am suffering and my people are suffering,” he told reporters at the hospital, in remarks carried by local radio stations.
In a statement, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for international pressure to stop the Israeli attacks.
Despite a sixth straight day of strikes, Gaza militants fired at least 12 rockets at southern Israel. Several exploded in the battered town of Sderot, causing damage but no serious injuries.
The decision by Israel’s Security Cabinet to keep up attacks was aimed at Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two main Islamic militant groups in Gaza.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said Israel would not differentiate between militant and political leaders in its strikes.
At the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI denounced the Palestinian rocket salvos and the factional fighting, and appealed for Israel to exercise restraint.
