Cartoon by Becs

Israel-Gaza: Hamas chiefs targeted as truce efforts stall

BBC: Israel says it has targeted the homes of Hamas commanders as deadly fighting with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip enters a 10th day.

Israel said it had tried to kill Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif "several times". Overnight, two militants died in a strike on an apartment.

Fresh barrages of rockets were also fired into Israel, with Hamas saying it had targeted an air base in the south.

Ceasefire moves continue behind the scenes but have made little headway.

France, in co-ordination with Egypt and Jordan, filed a resolution with the UN Security Council calling for an end to the violence, but it was only a draft.

The US, a long-standing ally of Israel, has been blocking attempts to issue a joint statement, saying it would not help with de-escalation, although it has called for a ceasefire.

Sources in the Israeli defence establishment told the BBC on Wednesday the Israeli military operation was "continuing at full-throttle. There is still no ceasefire on the table".

The fighting began after weeks of rising Israeli-Palestinian tension in occupied East Jerusalem that culminated in clashes at a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews. Hamas, which controls Gaza, began firing rockets after warning Israel to withdraw from the site, triggering retaliatory air strikes.

At least 219 people, including almost 100 women and children, have been killed in Gaza so far, according to its health ministry. Israel has said at least 150 militants are among those killed in Gaza. Hamas does not give casualty figures for fighters.

In Israel 12 people, including two children, have been killed, its medical service says. Israel says some 3,750 rockets have been fired towards its territory by militants in Gaza.

The rocket barrages and Israeli air strikes continued overnight.

The Israeli military said its fighter jets had attacked military infrastructure and the homes of Hamas commanders in Gaza.

The BBC's Rushdi Abualouf in Gaza says two Palestinian militants were killed in an apartment in a building in central Gaza City as Israeli warplanes carried out more than 70 strikes.

About 50 strikes targeted the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, with attacks on militant groups' training facilities, a Hamas-run security compound, and roads and farms, our correspondent says.

Gaza City mother of seven Randa Abu Sultan, 45, told AFP news agency: "My four-year-old son tells me he's scared that if he falls asleep, he'll wake up to find us dead."