Israel presses on with Gaza offensive approaching 100 days of war

Israel kept up bombardments in the Gaza Strip as its deadly war on the enclave’s Hamas rulers approached 100 days with no end in sight.

Israel kept up bombardments in the Gaza Strip as its deadly war on the enclave's Hamas rulers approached 100 days with no end in sight.

In the southern city of Rafah, an Israeli airstrike on a house sheltering two displaced families killed 10 persons, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

Holding up a photo of a dead girl with a piece of bread in her hand, Bassem Arafeh, a relative, said the families in Rafah had been eating dinner when the house was struck on the night of January 13.

"This child died while she was hungry, while she was eating a piece of bread with nothing on it, where is the International Criminal Court to see how the children die?" Ms. Arafeh said. "Where are the Muslims ... and the world leaders?"

Israel says it targets militants and does all it can to minimize harm to non-combatants as it wages urban warfare against Hamas in the densely populated Palestinian enclave.

But the scale of the killing in Gaza and the dire humanitarian situation has shocked world opinion and fuelled growing calls for a ceasefire.

The Israeli military said its forces had killed numerous militants in the southern area of Khan Younis and in the central Gaza Strip. It said it was looking into the reported strike in Rafah.