As fighting continues to rage on in Gaza City, eight members of a Palestinian family were killed by Israeli fire in Jebaliya, while Israeli drones dropped leaflets over the embattled city warning residents of an escalation in attacks from Israel. “We were at home when the bombing started,” Umm Mohammed said. “We fled towards another house and the tanks started firing. Several of us were hit.” Israeli forces killed at least 22 people on Saturday, according to Gaza emergency services, as warplanes launched over 40 air strikes Gaza on Saturday, bringing the deathtoll to at least 854, an 3,490 wounded. The Israeli military said more than 15 militants were killed in overnight fighting. Its aircraft attacked more than 40 targets throughout Gaza, striking 10 rocket-launching sites, weapons-storage facilities, smuggling tunnels, an anti-aircraft missile launcher and gunmen. Flames and smoke rose over Gaza City, and Israeli planes dropped leaflets in the territory announcing a “new phase” in the military operation. “The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) will escalate the operation in the Gaza Strip,” the leaflets said in Arabic. “The IDF is not working against the people of Gaza but against Hamas and the terrorists only. Stay safe by following our orders.” The leaflets urged Gaza residents not to help Hamas and to stay away from its members. Following an attack on a United Nations convoy driver, the UN has announced it will resume aid distribution to Palestinians in Gaza after receiving security assurances from Israel. The joint statement from the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process said it would resume aid distribution “as soon as possible.”Hamas said Saturday that the Gaza war ended chances of a negotiated peace with Israel and called on Arabs to pressure the Jewish State to end its attacks in the Gaza Strip which have stretched into their 15th straight day. Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal's fiery speech to the Arab news channel Al-Jazeera, however, still left open negotiating a cease-fire to end Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip, which have killed over 800 Palestinians, and were launched to stop Hamas from firing rockets at it. “You have finished off the last chance and breath for settlement and negotiations,” he said, calling on Arabs to continue their protests to pressure their leaders and the international community. The Hamas leader also slammed Israel's assault on Gaza as a “Holocaust” where the blood of the Palestinian people was being used to bolster Israel's upcoming elections. He said that any international monitoring force would be treated as “occupation” force and Hamas said that before any negotiations could take place, Israel had to halt attacks, pull out of the Gaza Strip and lift the siege of Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for international troops to supervise a cease-fire in Gaza and “protect the Palestinians,” a move rejected by Hamas. While Abbas and Hamas representatives were in Cairo at the same time, there were no plans for the bitter rivals to meet face to face, highlighting the complications that still lay ahead. Abbas meanwhile urged Israel and Hamas to accept an Egyptian cease-fire proposal, which he said would end hostilities. “If any party does not accept it (the truce), regrettably it will be the one bearing the responsibility,” Abbas told reporters during a visit to Cairo for talks. India released a statement calling for an end to the fighting and that the daily three-hour cease-fire has had no favorable result. Some 750,000 are without food and three-quaters are without electricity, the official statement read.
