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Gaza: Israel killed 46 Palestinians on Saturday in its deadliest and deepest incursion into the Gaza Strip since pulling out in 2005, stoking fears of a broader conflict that could derail renewed US-backed peace talks.
More than 75 Palestinians have been killed in four days of intense Israeli air strikes and raids in the tiny Hamas-controlled territory, home to 1.5 million people, bordering Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean.
Israel said it was responding to cross-border rockets which killed an Israeli man in the border town of Sderot on Wednesday and wounded others in the major southern city of Ash-kelon. Palestinian officials said the one-day death toll in Gaza yesterday was the highest since 2002.
Dr Muawiya Hassanein, head of Gaza emergency medical services, said at least 46 people were killed as a "great number of rockets fired by Israeli planes" slammed into the northern Gaza Strip. Of them, at least 19 were civilians and the rest were militants, according to hospital staff and Hamas officials.
One of the dead civilians was a mother who was preparing breakfast for her children when she was hit by gunfire, relatives and medical workers said. A girl and her brother were also among the dead.
Two Israeli soldiers were also killed yesterday in Gaza, Al Jazeera news channel reported, but there was no immediate confirmation from the army.
Tanks supported by helicopters moved into the area in and around the crowded town and refugee camp of Jabaliya and nearby Tufah in northern Gaza just after midnight.
One missile slammed into a crowd of Palestinians, killing four civilians, medical staff and Hamas said. The army said it fired on militants. Palestinian officials said Israeli forces advanced towards the towns of Beit Hanoun and Jab-alya, the furthest incursion into Gaza since 2005.
The United States on Friday urged Israel to "consider the consequences" of any action ahead of this week's scheduled visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. More bloodshed could derail Washington's hopes of a deal on Palestinian statehood before President George W. Bush leaves office next January. Russia called on Israel and the Pal-estinians to end the latest violence to give a chance to peace talks. Moscow also said it could not accept that "shells and bombs are falling on the heads of peaceful [Palestinian] women and children, under the pretext of fighting these acts of terror".
Condemnation: 'this is the real holocaust'
Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mesha'al denounced Israeli attacks against civilians in the Gaza strip on Saturday, describing it as "the real Holocaust".
"Israeli actions in Gaza since Wednesday is the real Holocaust," Mesha'al told reporters in Damascus, where he lives in exile.
He accused Israel of "exaggerating the Holocaust and using it to blackmail the world". Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the Israeli actions "unbelievable" and said what is happening "is more than a holocaust".
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