Israeli strikes kill 10 in Gaza as Egypt readies talks

GAZA CITY: Israel pounded Gaza with 60 air strikes on Saturday, killing 10 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and bringing down a 12-storey apartment block as Egypt called for new truce talks.

Since a previous round of frantic Egyptian diplomacy collapsed last Tuesday, shattering nine days of calm, 86 Palestinians and a four-year-old Israeli boy have been killed in the violence.

Israel on Saturday sent text messages, voice mails and leaflets warning Palestinians that "every house from which militant activity is carried out, will be targeted" and to stay away from "terrorists".

Israel insists on full safety for millions of citizens who live in daily fear of rocket fire, while Hamas insists that Israel must end its eight-year blockade of the territory as part of any truce.

At least 2,103 Palestinians and 68 people on the Israeli side, all but four of them soldiers, have been killed since July 8.

The UN says 70 percent of the Palestinians who have died were civilians, and that among the dead are 478 children.

Israel said it had carried out 60 air strikes over Gaza on Saturday and that around 71 rockets and mortar rounds from Gaza hit Israel, with another 17 intercepted, including one over Tel Aviv.

The deadliest Israeli air strike levelled a home in Al-Zawayda in central Gaza, killing a couple, their sons aged three and four, and a 45-year-old aunt, medics said.

Distraught mourners gathered at the cemetery, clawing at the dry soil and using their bare hands to fill the graves after laying marble slabs over the bodies in the burning morning sun.

Neighbours said the family house had been bombed earlier in the conflict and that the family had returned to camp out in the ruins, when it was hit overnight by an F16. (AFP)