At least 100 Palestinians die in one day - PHOTO

Since July 8, more than 1,100 Gazans, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict. On the Israeli side, 53 soldiers have been killed as well as three civilians.Yesterday a thick column of black smoke rose from a burning fuel tank at the Gaza strip's only power plant - even before the strike Gaza residents had electricity for only about three hours a day and the hit is bound to have reduced supplies even further.The pounding came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a 'prolonged' campaign against Hamas.It was not clear if this meant Israel has decided to go beyond the initial objectives of decimating Hamas' ability to fire rockets and demolishing the group's military tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border.In a televised address on Monday night, a grim-faced Netanyahu said any solution to the crisis would require the demilitarisation of the Palestinian territory, controlled by Hamas Islamists and their militant allies.'We will not finish the operation without neutralising the tunnels, which have the sole purpose of destroying our citizens, killing our children,' Netanyahu said.'We need to be prepared for a lengthy campaign. We will continue to act with force and discretion until our mission is accomplished,' he said.'His threats do not frighten either Hamas or the Palestinian people, and the (Israeli) occupation will pay the price for its massacres against children and civilians,' said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.Meanwhile, a senior Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) official proposed a 24-hour humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, saying he spoke in the name of Hamas, but was contradicted a short while later by a spokesman of the Islamic militant group.The largest group in the PLO is the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas' main political rival.However, the PLO's secretary-general, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said the offer came after consultations with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group in Gaza.Palestinian officials said Mr Abbas has been in touch in recent days with Khaled Mashaal, the top Hamas leader in exile.'The Palestinian leadership, following consultations with the leadership in Hamas and Islamic Jihad, announces in the name of all of these our readiness for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for 24 hours,' Abed Rabbo said in the West Bank.A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, said that 'the remarks of Mr Abed Rabbo are not true and have nothing to do with the positions of the factions at the moment'. Today Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Israel's leaders of committing 'genocide' in Gaza and called on the Islamic world to arm Palestinians fighting 'the Zionist regime'.In a speech marking the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, Khamenei said Israel was acting like a 'rabid dog' and 'a wild wolf' in acts that amounted to a human catastrophe in Gaza and which must be resisted. It came as a video emerged of right-wing Israelis filmed in a Tel Aviv street chanting against Arab politicians and singing 'there's no children there'. The location they are referring to is unclear but many media outlets have interpreted it as being in relation to the recent deaths of children in Gaza and a possible celebration of the Israeli military's offensive.Overnight Israeli aircraft fired a missile at the house of Hamas Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh and flattened it before dawn, causing damage but no casualties, Gaza's interior ministry said. (dailymail.co.uk)Bakudaily.az