Israeli airstrike on militants also kills civilians

'Don't be afraid'
A weeping Hekmat Mughrabi, her veil soaked with blood, said her 30-year-old son, Ashraf, and another 13-year-old relative died. The young man, hearing the explosion of the first missile outside his home, ran to the door to calm children who had been on the roof making paper kites.

“He was shouting to the kids, ‘Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid,”’ and hadn’t even finished his sentence when the second missile hit, she said. “My son died in my arms.”

Shrapnel from the blast flew into the house, wounding other family members, she added.

Outside her house was Wadiya’s mangled van, its interior a jumble of twisted metal and shredded upholstery. A white slipper lay in a pool of blood on the ground, and angry crowds burned tires.

Peretz, the Israeli defense minister who reportedly delayed a major air offensive so Palestinians could curb the rockets, said all restraints were now off.

“We will act with all our might and use all our means against any group that acts against us,” said Peretz, whose hometown, Sderot, comes under frequent rocket attack.

100 rockets launched
Rocket fire from Gaza rarely causes casualties, but it disrupts life in the southern Israeli towns where the projectiles fall. At midday Tuesday, the Israeli military said more than 100 rockets had been launched at Israel since Friday.

It said the cell it targeted Tuesday intended to launch Katyusha rockets, which have a longer range than the homemade ones militants usually fire.

Abbas accused Israel of trying to “wipe out the Palestinian people.”

“Every day there are martyrs, there are wounded people, all of them innocents, all of them bystanders,” he said. “They want to eliminate the Palestinian people, but we are going to sit tight. We are sitting tight on our land.

“What Israel is committing is state terrorism,” he added.

The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, demanded an international inquiry “to investigate the brutal crimes and the bloody Israeli massacres of our people.”

A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said armed groups “have no other choice but to protect our people.”

“The world must bear the responsibility for the explosive situation that will engulf the whole region,” Abu Zuhri said.

Hamas recently resumed open involvement in rocket attacks against Israel and, after the beach explosion, called off a 16-month truce.

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