Humanitarian disaster in Gaza

Palestinians flee homes 

in Gaza

Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing parts of northern Gaza after Israel warned it was targeting the area in its campaign to stop rocket attacks.

Radio NZ,

14 July, 2014

More than 160 Palestinians have been killed in six days of shelling. The United Nations says 75 percent of the dead are civilians.

The dead are said to include 17 members of one extended family who died in an Israeli missile strike at the weekend.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas fighters and "terror sites", including the homes of senior operatives. However, the UN estimates that 77% of the people killed in Gaza have been civilians.

In the latest developments, the Israeli military said a mortar shell or rocket fired from Syria hit the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights.

And a rocket fired from Gaza hit electricity infrastructure in Israel that supplied power to Gaza, cutting power to about 70,000 people.

Yesterday Israel destroyed the territory's security headquarters and several police stations.

The three-storey home of the head of the Hamas police force was destroyed, critically wounding him and killing 17 members of his extended family - including three children.

Smoke billowing from buildings in Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike.

Photo: AFP

The morgue in Shiva hospital is full and hospitals are struggling to cope with hundreds of injured amid a shortage of medical supplies.

No Israelis have been killed by the many Hamas long-range missiles fired into Israel.

Israel said it sent ground forces into Gaza for the first time at the weekend in a raid on a rocket-launching site.

Four soldiers were "lightly injured" in a successful raid on the site, the Israel Defence Forces said on its Twitter feed

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Israel says it was hit by about 90 rockets fired from Gaza on Saturday and also reported intercepting three rockets fired at Tel Aviv from the coastal territory by Hamas Islamist militants.

UN calls for ceasefire

The UN Security Council has called for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

All 15 members the UN Security Council approved a statement calling for calm and peace talks.

The BBC reports it is the first time since Israel's offensive began that they have issued a statement, with members previously divided on their response.

Israel has vowed to press on with its campaign until rocket attacks stop. Five Israelis have been injured by rocket and missile attacks, two of them seriously, but no Israelis have died.