Calls from the international community for an end to the current Gaza Strip conflict went unanswered Monday, as the death toll climbed even higher while both sides continued what Israel's defense minister termed a "war to the bitter end."
As the third day of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians came and went, some 1,400 people had been wounded and another 364 confirmed killed -- about sixth of which were civilian deaths, the UN said -- since the weekend.
In particular, Israel picked targets on Monday that struck at Hamas symbols -- including strikes on a house next to the home of the Hamas prime minister, a security compound and a five-story building at a university linked to the militant group.
Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak said the campaign was "against Hamas and its branches."
He said the current battle would be a "war to the bitter end."
Since Israel began its campaign against the Palestinians on Saturday in response to ongoing rocket fire out of Gaza targeting southern Israeli towns, it has shown no signs of slowing down its efforts. The country has doubled its troops along the Gaza border and its cabinet approved bringing up 6,500 reservists.
Calls to end the conflict
On Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Israel must stop its attacks on Gaza, while the White House said Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel.
Both called for the two warring sides to agree to a ceasefire.
Oded Eran, a spokesperson for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said the bombing campaign will end when the rocket attacks stop.
He said Israel has been under attack by rockets for more than eight years.
"How long would the Canadian government restrain itself if the Canadian civilian population would've been under attack from any other neighbour?" Eran asked in an interview with Â鶹´«Ã½net on Monday.
A senior exiled Hamas official said Monday the rocket attacks won't stop until Israel stops bombing Gaza.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, speaking to The Associated Press in an interview in Damascus, said Palestinian fighters have a right to strike Israel in response to its deadly assault on Gaza.
The Israeli military campaign
CTV's Middle East Bureau Chief Janis Mackey Frayer reported Monday that Israel has been amassing tanks, troops, and armoured bulldozers at the border with Gaza in recent days.
"Israel is saying it wants to create a new reality on the ground which is why there is the threat at least of a major ground offensive that may follow the aerial campaign," she said from Ashkelon, about 15 kilometres north of Gaza.
"... Israel certainly doesn't want to get tangled in a ground war but they're saying that they're not ruling out any possibilities."
Meanwhile, despite the bombings, Hamas has not eased rocket fire against Israel.
On Monday, the group launched rockets at Ashkelon, killing a man and wounding several others.
The man was the first person ever to be killed by a rocket in Ashkelon, which has a population of about 120,000.
According to Israel's Foreign Ministry, 17 people have been killed in attacks from Gaza in 2008, including nine civilians and eight soldiers. Six of the dead were killed by rockets.
Medical concerns in Gaza
One Gaza doctor told Â鶹´«Ã½net that area hospitals have been so overwhelmed with conflict victims that people are being operated on in the hallways of medical buildings.
Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, a psychiatrist at the Gaza Mental Health Center, said more than 400 people have been killed since the aerial assault began Saturday.
"The situation is so bad that doctors have made makeshift operating theatres in the corridors of the hospitals because there is no beds to treat patients," El-Sarraj told Â鶹´«Ã½net in an interview Monday afternoon.
He said the main hospital in Gaza also received a fax from Israel that part of the hospital will be bombed.
He said he was yet to confirm if reports that the hospital was to be evacuated were true.
El-Sarraj called on Israel to allow medical aid to be brought into Gaza via the International Red Cross.
"We need doctors, we need surgeons, we need medical equipment, surgical equipment as soon as possible," he said.
El-Sarraj said Gaza was besieged for the last 18 months by the Israelis so medical facilities are not up to the required standards to deal with so many injured people.
Israeli elections
The ongoing conflict comes as Israel prepares for an election in February.
Former Canadian ambassador to Israel Michael Bell said the pressure on the government to act against Hamas has been intense.
"In other words, Israelis expected their country, their leaders to react forcefully. I don't think they had much choice in terms of domestic opinion in the electoral campaign," Bell told CTV's Canada AM from Ottawa on Monday.
He called Israel's offensive in Gaza "counterproductive."
"These attacks might give some kind of temporary satisfaction to the Israelis who feel something is being done but in the long run they solve nothing," Bell said.
"They simply increase the level of resentment, the angst and anguish that Gazans feel and I think in the long run they strengthen Hamas rather than weaken it."
While many Arabs are outraged at the attacks, Bell said he thinks the governments of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority are likely hoping that the Israelis are successful in decapitating Hamas.
"I don't think they will be but it's the most immediate, easiest attempt at a solution," Bell said.
"Diplomacy is long and hard, one has to accommodate the other, it's very difficult it's frustrating but I think in the long run that is the only answer if in fact there is an answer to this terrible conundrum."
With files from The Associated Press
