
At least 100 Palestinians were killed yesterday after Israel pummelled the Gaza strip from the air, sea and land in the heaviest bombardment of the three-week war against Hamas.

Since July 8, more than 1,100 Gazans, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict. On the Israeli side, 53 soldiers have been killed as well as three civilians.

Yesterday a thick column of black smoke rose from a burning fuel tank at the Gaza strip's only power plant - even before the strike Gaza residents had electricity for only about three hours a day and the hit is bound to have reduced supplies even further.

The pounding came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a 'prolonged' campaign against Hamas.

It was not clear if this meant Israel has decided to go beyond the initial objectives of decimating Hamas' ability to fire rockets and demolishing the group's military tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border.

Israel's military have hit a vital fuel tank at the Gaza Strip's only power plant just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country should prepare for a long conflict in the Palestinian enclave

A huge cloud of black smoke was seen rising above Gaza City after the explosion and a power company spokesman said the shells hit one of three tanks in the plant compound which currently store fuel

Even before the strike, Gaza residents had electricity for only about three hours a day and today's hit is bound to reduce supplies even further

'WE JUST WANT PEACE:' YOUNG ISRAELI WOMAN RECOUNTS LIFE ON THE BORDER A 27-year-old Israeli woman has spoken out about living life on the border of Gaza. In a video posted on YouTube, Dana, who lives in Kibbutz Nir-am, 2 km from the Gaza border expresses sadness over the loss of life in Gaza. 'I feel very bad for the people in Gaza who are not in the Hamas who are innocent. It’s just a horrible situation to be in…We aren’t happy about this happening, it’s very, very sad,' she said. But she insisted it the attack were justified because Hamas is intent on attacking Israel using tunnels. 'They have found a way into our homes now and that is scary because now I can’t walk around in the kibbutz and just know where the closest shelter is, because now they’re just digging their way up from Gaza into our country and it’s a whole new threat and it’s a very scary threat to walk around your own home and be afraid,' she said. 'It hurts for everyone in the country. So next time Israel is portrayed as this heartless monster, think of this video, think of what we are going through. Our country is wonderful…We just want peace, that’s all…Let’s just hope it ends quickly and as safely as possible,' she said, before ending the video. Advertisement

Already, the intensity and the scope of the current Gaza operation is on par with an invasion five years ago, which ended with a unilateral Israeli withdrawal after hitting Hamas hard.

In a televised address on Monday night, a grim-faced Netanyahu said any solution to the crisis would require the demilitarisation of the Palestinian territory, controlled by Hamas Islamists and their militant allies.

'We will not finish the operation without neutralising the tunnels, which have the sole purpose of destroying our citizens, killing our children,' Netanyahu said.

'We need to be prepared for a lengthy campaign. We will continue to act with force and discretion until our mission is accomplished,' he said.

'His threats do not frighten either Hamas or the Palestinian people, and the (Israeli) occupation will pay the price for its massacres against children and civilians,' said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

Meanwhile, a senior Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) official proposed a 24-hour humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, saying he spoke in the name of Hamas, but was contradicted a short while later by a spokesman of the Islamic militant group.

The largest group in the PLO is the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas' main political rival.

However, the PLO's secretary-general, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said the offer came after consultations with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group in Gaza.

Palestinian officials said Mr Abbas has been in touch in recent days with Khaled Mashaal, the top Hamas leader in exile.

'The Palestinian leadership, following consultations with the leadership in Hamas and Islamic Jihad, announces in the name of all of these our readiness for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for 24 hours,' Abed Rabbo said in the West Bank.

A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, said that 'the remarks of Mr Abed Rabbo are not true and have nothing to do with the positions of the factions at the moment'.

Today Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Israel's leaders of committing 'genocide' in Gaza and called on the Islamic world to arm Palestinians fighting 'the Zionist regime'.

In a speech marking the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, Khamenei said Israel was acting like a 'rabid dog' and 'a wild wolf' in acts that amounted to a human catastrophe in Gaza and which must be resisted.

It came as a video emerged of right-wing Israelis filmed in a Tel Aviv street chanting against Arab politicians and singing 'there's no children there'.

The location they are referring to is unclear but many media outlets have interpreted it as being in relation to the recent deaths of children in Gaza and a possible celebration of the Israeli military's offensive.

Overnight Israeli aircraft fired a missile at the house of Hamas Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh and flattened it before dawn, causing damage but no casualties, Gaza's interior ministry said.

Grief: The bodies of children are carried from a house in southern Gaza destroyed in the attacks

Ansam, aged nine, with the body of her four year old brother, Sameh Jned, before his funeral in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp, North Gaza Strip. Sameh was killed by Israeli tank fire in the garden of his family home

Marwan Hassanein, aged four, (left) at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where he is receiving treatment. Marwan was injured in head and eyes by shrapnel while fleeing with his family during Israeli shelling in the Shijaiyah neighborhood

A young girl receives treatment at the Al-Shifaa Hospital after she was injured when an Israeli shell hit her home

The mother of a Palestinian child reacts following his death at a hospital in Gaza City

Palestinian mourners react as they watch the funeral procession of some of the eight children killed at eight children in a public playground in the beachfront Shati refugee camp

Palestinian men react after the bodies of several children arrived in the morgue of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City

A Palestinian father of one of eight dead children cries outside the morgue of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City

An Israeli military spokeswoman said 70 targets were struck in Gaza through the night.

At least 30 people were killed in the assaults from air, land and sea, residents said, after a night of the most widespread attacks so far in the coastal enclave.

'My house is not dearer than any of the houses of our people,' Haniyeh was quoted as saying on a Hamas website. 'The destruction of stones will not break our will and we will continue our resistance until we gain freedom.'

The scene at the Gaza power plant after two tank shells hit one of three fuel tanks was daunting. 'We need at least one year to repair the power plant, the turbines, the fuel tanks and the control room,' said Fathi Sheik Khalil of the Gaza Energy Authority. 'Everything was burned.'

He said crew members who had been trapped by the fire for several hours were evacuated.

Even before the shutdown, Gaza residents only had electricity for about three hours a day because fighting had damaged power lines. Most of the power lines from Israel that provided electricity for payment were previously damaged in the fighting.

This means most of Gaza will now be without power. The lack of electricity will also affect water supplies, since power is needed to operate water pumps

The Israeli military said five soldiers were killed in a battle with militants who crossed into Israel via a tunnel near the community of Nahal Oz, close to the Gaza border.

Israeli Army Radio said Hamas gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the soldiers who were in a watchtower and then tried to drag one of the soldiers' bodies into the tunnel back to Gaza, but failed when troops fired at them, killing one militant.

Hamas said nine of its fighters carried out the attack.

The funeral of Jalila Ayad, a Palestinian Christian woman whose body was found under the rubble of her home after an Israeli airstike Israel

Palestinians mourn at the graves of their relatives, killed during the Israeli offensive, at a cemetery in Beit Lahiyah in the northern Gaza Strip Israel

More than 1,100 Gazans, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict. On the Israeli side, 53 soldiers have been killed as well as three civilians

Palestinian rescue workers carry the body of a member of Duheir family, after removing it from under the rubble of a building

Palestinian relatives mourn for victims of the Duheir family, near the rubble of their home

'They attacked a fortified military watch tower of Nahal Oz where there were a great number of occupation soldiers,' the group's armed wing, said in a statement.

The incident on Monday raised to 10 the number of military fatalities for the day.

Hamas said its broadcast outlets Al-Aqsa TV and Al-Aqsa Radio were also targeted. The television station continued to broadcast but the radio station went silent.

Residents said that 20 houses were destroyed during the night and two mosques were hit.

Witnesses said the fuel storage at Gaza's main power plant was struck, sending thick black plumes of smoke up into the air and leaving Gaza City and many other areas in the battered enclave without electricity.

Israel launched its offensive on July 8 saying it wanted to halt rocket attacks by Hamas and its allies. It later ordered a land invasion to find and destroy the warren of Hamas tunnels that criss-crosses the border area.

A building within the Gaza port is seen on fire after several strikes early today

Terror: An airstrike hits its target in Gaza City yesterday

Smoke rises above Gaza skyline following an Israeli airstrike yesterday

A Palestinian man reacts in front of a destroyed mosque after it was hit by an Israeli air strike

A Palestinian man carrying a child looks at the destroyed house of Hamas top leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, after it was hit by an overnight Israeli air strike

Hamas said its broadcast outlets Al-Aqsa TV and Al-Aqsa Radio were also targeted

The television station continued to broadcast but the radio station went silent

A Palestinian from a damaged neighboring apartment building inspects the damage of the offices of the Hamas movement's Al-Aqsa satellite TV station

Damage caused by mortar fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, which hit the Israeli Kibutz of Nahal Oz, Israel. One woman was wounded

Shelves for the shoes of Muslim worshippers are seen damaged at the Ameen mosque in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip

It says some of the tunnels reach into Israel and are meant for perpetrating surprise attacks on residents of nearby towns, while other underground passages in Gaza serve as Hamas bunkers and weapons caches.

As night fell, army flares illuminated the sky and the sound of intense shelling was heard. The military warned thousands of Palestinians to flee their homes around Gaza City - usually the prelude to major army strikes.

A number of rockets fired from Gaza were launched toward southern and central Israel, including the Tel Aviv area. At least one rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome system. No casualties or damage were reported.

The explosion of violence after two days of relative calm appeared to wreck international hopes of turning a brief lull into a longer-term ceasefire.

Foreign pressure has been building on Netanyahu to rein in his forces. Both U.S. President Barack Obama and the U.N. Security Council called for an immediate ceasefire to allow relief to reach Gaza's 1.8 million Palestinians, followed by negotiations on a more durable end to hostilities.

But the sides are far apart. Israel wants Gaza's armed groups stripped of weapons. Hamas and its allies want the Israeli-Egyptian blockade lifted.

An Israeli canon fires a 155mm shell towards targets in the Gaza Strip from their position along the border between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip

Empty cartridges are piled up at an Israeli army deployment near the border between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The UN Security Council joined US President Barack Obama in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, after Israel and Hamas ignored calls for a truce despite mounting civilian casualties

Israeli soldiers gathering for sundown prayers in a staging area very close to the Gaza Strip border, in southern Israel

Israeli soldiers evacuate a wounded soldier in a helicopter after a mortar shell hit directly in a soldiers staging area and killed four soldiers at an undisclosed location close to the Gaza Strip border, in southern Israel

A picture taken from the southern Israeli Gaza border shows an Israeli army UAV flying over the Gaza strip

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited the region last week to try to stem the bloodshed, his contacts with Hamas - which Washington formally shuns - facilitated by Egypt, Turkey, Qatar and Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel wants Egypt, which also borders the Gaza Strip and views Hamas as a security threat, to take the lead in curbing the Palestinian Islamists. It worries about Doha and Ankara championing Hamas demands.

Tension between Netanyahu's government and Washington has flared over U.S. mediation efforts, adding another chapter to the prickly relations between the Israeli leader and Obama.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplored what he said was a lack of resolve among all parties.

'It's a matter of their political will. They have to show their humanity as leaders, both Israeli and Palestinian,' he told reporters.

The main U.N. agency in Gaza, UNRWA, said more than 167,000 displaced Palestinians had taken shelter in its schools and buildings, following calls by Israel for civilians to evacuate whole neighbourhoods ahead of military operations.

Israeli soldiers mourn during the funeral of Israeli soldier Daniel Kedmi in Tel Aviv

Yulia (left) the girlfriend of Staff Sergeant Adi Briga, mourns alongside his mother (second left), father (second right) and brother (right) during his funeral in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon, 13 kilometres from the Gaza border

Staff Sgt. Adi Briga, 23, was one of four Israeli soldiers who were killed in a motor attack 28 July carried out by Palestinian militants near the Gaza Strip border

Israeli residents and relatives take cover from a rocket attack from Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip during the funeral of Israeli soldier Corporal Meidan Maymon Biton, 20, at the cemetery of the southern Israeli city of Netivot

Israeli residents take cover from a rocket attack from Palestinian militants

Palestinian youths list the names of the children who were killed in the ongoing Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip

Palestinian children play near a damaged mini ferris wheel in the wartorn Shejaiya district of Gaza City on the first day of Eid al-Fitr holiday