Gaza death toll hits 314 as UN's Ban Ki-moon heads to region

Five bodies were pulled from a home hit by an Israeli air strike on southern Gaza on Saturday, hiking the death toll to 314 as UN chief Ban Ki-moon headed to the region to bolster truce efforts. The bodies were retrieved from Khan Yunis, where a sixth body was also found, and a seventh person died of wounds sustained on Friday, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

The discoveries came after the deaths of seven people outside a mosque in the southern city of Khan Yunis, Qudra said, adding that three of the dead were from the same family.

One woman was among those killed, Qudra said.

Three more people were killed shortly afterwards, in three separate strikes in Beit Hanun in the north, Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, and another in Khan Yunis.

In Khan Yunis, a later strike on a home killed Raed al-Laqan, 28.

The deaths took to 314 the toll from an Israeli operation to stamp out rocket fire from Gaza, many of them women and children.

Some 2,270 Palestinians and several Israelis have been injured.

The UN said Friday Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would leave for the region Saturday in a bid to end the violence.

Ban would help Israelis and Palestinians "in coordination with regional and international actors, end the violence and find a way forward," under secretary general for political affairs Jeffrey Feltman told emergency talks at the Security Council.

But the two sides' UN ambassadors traded blame for the violence, with Israel's Ron Prosor insisting no other country would "tolerate... terrorist" rocket fire at its citizens.

Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour read aloud the names of Palestinian dead, including women and children to the Security Council, and at one point appeared close to tears.

- Israel to expand ground assault -

Israel's ground incursion, launched on the tenth day of an operation to stamp out rocket fire from Gaza, has killed dozens and forced thousands of people to flee.

Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to be ready for "a significant broadening of the ground activity."

He then convened his security cabinet to discuss a possible expansion of the campaign, which began on July 8 with the aim of stamping out cross-border rocket fire.

Israel's armed forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, said the army was "expanding the ground phase of the operation," according to a statement.

"There will be moments of hardship," he warned in a briefing to the military, anticipating further Israeli casualties.

In Gaza, after a relative lull Friday, violence picked up again in the evening, with intensifying tank shelling and air strikes killing more than a dozen people.

Among them were eight members of a single family, including four children, killed by tank fire on their home in northern Gaza, Qudra said.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA has opened 34 of its schools to shelter those fleeing.

It said Friday there were 47,000 Gazans seeking sanctuary with the agency.

The World Food Programme said it had already distributed emergency food rations and food vouchers to more than 20,000 displaced people.

But with the ground operation, it was gearing up for a huge increase in the coming days and hoping to reach 85,000 people with food distributions, a spokeswoman said.

Gaza was also struggling with a 70 percent power outage after electricity lines from Israel were damaged, officials said.

Tunnel operation

Israel has said the aim of the ground operation is to destroy Hamas's network of tunnels which are used for cross-border attacks on southern Israel.

Netanyahu said the ground operation was necessary to deal with the tunnels, but admitted there was "no guarantee of 100 percent success."

Obama told reporters the US supports Israel's right to defend itself, but said Washington was "deeply concerned about the risks of further escalation and the loss of more innocent life."

He added that Washington was "hopeful" that Israel would operate "in a way that minimises civilian casualties".

Israel pulled out all of its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but within a year it became the de facto seat of Hamas after it won a landslide victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections.

Meanwhile, Abbas was in Turkey where he urged support for an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire proposal.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Abbas had urged Paris to ask Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey to pressure the group into accepting a ceasefire.

Hamas has rejected Egyptian proposals for a truce, demanding an easing of a harsh Gaza blockade imposed by Israel in 2006 and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

-AFP