MIDDLE EAST: Palestinian Authority President Mr Yasser Arafat yesterday called for international intervention in the region, while Israeli leaders argued over the effectiveness and morality of aerial strikes in civilian areas.
Israeli combat aircraft blitzed Gaza City on Monday killing 12 Palestinians - including Hamas militants and civilians - and injured at least 80 people.
Palestinians buried their dead yesterday in Gaza. Tens of thousands turned out for the funerals of seven people killed in the Nusseirat refugee camp on Monday evening, in the fourth and most lethal of five aerial strikes carried out by Israel.
"Sharon, wait, wait, you have opened hell's gate," mourners chanted as the bodies were carried on stretchers through Nusseirat.
Palestinians said all seven were bystanders who were hit by a missile as they crowded around a car struck moments earlier by another missile fired by an Israeli helicopter. Israel said that three Hamas militants who had been in the car had been killed.
The army last night released aerial photographs taken by a remotely piloted plane, which show the area free of civilians when the missiles hit.
Palestinians said one of the dead was a doctor, Zain Shaheen (29), who had rushed to the scene to help the wounded after the first missile struck.
Mr Arafat called on the "quartet" - made up of the US, UN, EU and Russia - to "immediately intervene to stop this military madness in which they aim to destroy the Holy Land and this steadfast people".
The Palestinian leader, who has often called for international observers to be sent to the region, did not elaborate on exactly what type of intervention he sought.
The radical Hamas and Islamic Jihad organisations vowed revenge.
"The two movements agreed to confront the Zionist aggression on our people in Palestine and to urge all factions and resistance forces to co-ordinate among each other to confront this aggression," they said in a joint statement.
EU foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana said that, while his organisation "recognises Israel's right to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks", it urged the Israeli government "to exert maximum effort to avoid civilian casualties".
Some Israeli government ministers and military officials blamed the civilian casualties on militants who, they said, hide among the Palestinian civilian population.
Deputy Defence Minister Mr Ze'ev Boim, of the ruling centre-right Likud party, said the "murderous Hamas and Jihad terrorism nests deep within the civilian population".
He added: "Some of this population - and I emphasise, some - collaborates and aids these murderous organisations."
The army expressed sorrow over the civilian deaths, but chief army spokeswoman Brig Gen Ruth Yaron said "the primary responsibility" of the military was "to defend Israeli citizens".
"The blood of the victims in Gaza is on the hands of the terrorists," she said.
But some government ministers, from the centrist Shinui party said the high civilian casualty rate was unacceptable.
Left-wing opposition members said the aerial strikes in Gaza indicated that the government's only policy was to resort to the increasing use of force.
Israeli troops moved into Ramallah last night and surrounded a mosque the army said was being used by Hamas militants.
Witnesses said troops also searched the offices of the Al Jazeera Arab satellite TV network.