GAZA CITY: Israel pounded the Hamas-run Gaza Strip yesterday, killing five children, 10 fighters and another three civilians, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to make the fighters pay a heavy price for rocket attacks. The four children, aged eight, nine, 11 and 12 were killed while they played in a field in the northern city of Jabaliya. Another 12-year-old boy died of wounds sustained in a Gaza raid on Wednesday.
Medics said the boys were playing soccer when an Israeli missile struck.
As many as 31 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed in two days of bloodshed, all but three of them in and around impoverished Gaza, where Israel has imposed a blockade.
Among those killed have been a six-month-old baby in Gaza and a man in southern Israel who became the first Israeli victim of a Gaza rocket attack in nine months.
A civilian was killed in a strike near the house of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. The attack did not appear to have targeted Haniyeh, whose house was not damaged.
Speaking after talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Tokyo, Olmert vowed to punish Hamas for the rocket attacks.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned that "a large-scale ground operation is being considered" while Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni urged the international community to accept such an operation.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees called on Israel "to abide by international law and exercise maximum restraint, and not to endanger civilians."
"The killing of innocent children is always tragic and condemnable," spokesman Chris Gunness said.
Hamas leader Khalil Al Haya's son Hamza was also killed as he led a squad firing rockets into Israel.
Al Haya said he was proud that his son had given his life for the Hamas cause and joined a long line of family members killed in the conflict with Israel.
"I thank God for this gift," Al Haya said.
"This is the 10th member of my family to receive the honour of martyrdom."
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told a high-level Israeli delegation that his country blames Israel for the worsening humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, a ministry official said.
"Egypt does not accept the collective punishment meted out by Israel which worsens the suffering of those in Gaza," his spokesman quoted Abul Gheit as telling the visiting delegation led by Israeli foreign ministry director-general Aaron Abramovich.
"Israel is behind the worsening humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip," Abul Gheit said, and stressed Egypt's "concern about military operations in which innocent civilians are the victims."
A 13-year-old Egyptian girl was shot and critically wounded near an Israeli-controlled border junction between Egypt, Israel and the Gaza Strip, Egyptian residents said.
Residents in the border area said Samah Nayef Abu Garrad was shot in the head as she played outside her home, about 700m from the Kerem Shalom border terminal.
Egyptian security officials, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, confirmed the girl was shot.
A cousin of the girl, tribal leader Sheikh Darwish Abu Garrad, said the gunfire appeared to have come "from the direction of Israel".
