100 Palestinians killed in Gaza’s bloody Sunday

The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Sunday was at least 100, the emergency services spokesman in the territory, Ashraf Al Qudra, said.

A Palestinian woman cries as she flees from Gaza City's Shejaiyah neighbourhood that came under fire as Israel widened its ground offensive against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip. -AP

It was the bloodiest single day in the battered enclave in five years, taking the Palestinian toll on the 13th day of Israel’s Gaza offensive to 438.

More than half of Sunday’s dead were in Shejaiya, between Gaza City and the Israeli border, with at least 62 people killed there in a blistering bombardment which began overnight, he said.

At least 250 were wounded, raising the overall injury toll during the 13 days of violence to well above 3,000, he added.

Of those killed since the operation began, more than a third were women and children, Qudra said, indicating that 112 of the victims were minors, 41 were women and 25 were elderly.

The Israeli army said that 13 soldiers were also killed in fighting inside the enclave.

Their deaths raised to 18 the total number of soldiers killed since Israel’s ground operation began late on Thursday. It was the largest number of soldiers killed in combat since the 2006 Lebanon war.

Dozens more have been wounded.

Sunday’s violence raised the overall Israeli death toll to 20, which includes two civilians killed by rocket fire.

Regional leaders met in Doha for urgent talks on a ceasefire.

With ambulances unable to reach the area, the International Committee of the Red Cross called for an urgent temporary ceasefire to allow paramedics to evacuate the dead and wounded, which was agreed on by the two sides.

Inside the ravaged neighbourhood of Shejaiya, there were hellish scenes of carnage and chaos as a convoy of ambulances moved in to make the most of the calm.

Entire buildings were collapsed on themselves or strewn into the streets, while others were still ablaze, sending pillars of black smoke skywards.

There were also bodies, blackened and charred almost beyond recognition, some with whole limbs missing.

As the violence raged, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Qatar to discuss a ceasefire with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon due there later Sunday at the start of a regional tour to push truce efforts.

So far, truce efforts have been rejected by Hamas.

Undaunted by the Israeli bombardment by land, sea and air, it has pressed on with its own assaults. Following a night of terror in Shejaiya, thousands began fleeing for their lives at first light after heavy shelling left casualties lying in the streets.

Clouds of black smoke billowed into the sky as the shelling continued and Gaza’s eastern flank burned.

Among those fleeing was a group of gunmen with automatic weapons, some with their faces covered by scarves.

Women and children were among the dead, as were a Palestinian paramedic and a cameraman killed when the ambulance they were in was hit.

So far, UNRWA has opened 61 of its schools to shelter those fleeing the most heavily bombarded areas, with more than 81,000 people taking refuge in them, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the civilian casualties on Hamas using innocent civilians “as human shields” and on Sunday he insisted the military campaign had “very strong support” from the international community.

“We are carrying out a complex, deep, intensive activity inside the Gaza Strip and there is world support for this ... very strong support,” he said ahead of a meeting of his security cabinet in Tel Aviv.

Although Israel said earlier on Sunday it was expanding its ground operation to destroy the network of tunnels used by militants to stage cross-border attacks, Netanyahu said troops could end their mission “fairly quickly”.

And Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon also suggested it could end within days.

“My assessment is that in another two or three days, the lion’s share of the tunnels, from our perspective, will be destroyed,” he said at the same press conference.

But he demanded international action to “demilitarise Gaza” the tiny coastal enclave, which is home to 1.7 million Palestinians and is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet.

Israel’s right to self-defence in the face of militant rocket fire from Gaza has won repeated support from Washington, with US President Barack Obama expressing concern over the loss of life in a call to Netanyahu on Sunday, saying Secretary of State John Kerry would travel to Cairo to seek an end to the fighting.

Kerry, meanwhile, blamed Hamas for perpetuating the bloody conflict by “stubbornly” refusing all ceasefire efforts.

By its behaviour, Hamas had “invited further actions” by Israel, he said, in remarks which drew an angry response from Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who accused Israel of killing Palestinians “mercilessly.”

“How can we ignore this? How can a country like the United States turn a blind eye to this?” he asked.