At Least 100 Gazans Dead on Assault's Bloodiest Day as Israel Says 13 Troops Killed Overnight

More than 60 Palestinians were killed Sunday as Israeli forces pounded northern Gaza, sending thousands more fleeing in terror in the deadliest assault on the enclave in five years, as Israel admitted that 13 of its soldiers were killed overnight.

The overall number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Sunday was at least 100, the emergency services spokesman in the territory, Ashraf al-Qudra, said.

It was the bloodiest single day in the battered enclave in five years, taking the Palestinian toll on the 13th day of Israel's Gaza offensive to 438.

More than half of Sunday's dead were in Shejaiya, between Gaza City and the Israeli border, with at least 62 people killed there in a blistering bombardment which began overnight, he said.

At least 250 were wounded, raising the overall injury toll during the 13 days of violence to well above 3,000, he added.

Of those killed since the operation began, more than a third were women and children, Qudra said, indicating that 112 of the victims were minors, 41 were women and 25 were elderly.

Eight people were killed in an Israeli air strike on the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on Sunday afternoon, the Palestinian emergency services said. Elsewhere, a 15-year-old girl was killed in another air strike on the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

Also on Sunday, the Israeli army confirmed that 13 soldiers were killed in fighting inside the enclave. 

Their deaths raised to 18 the total number of soldiers killed since Israel began a ground operation in Gaza late on Thursday, in what was the highest casualty figure since the 2006 Lebanon war. Dozens more have been wounded. 

Sunday's violence raised the overall Israeli death toll to 20, which includes two civilians killed by rocket fire.

"Over the course of the day, 13 soldiers from the IDF's Golani Brigade were killed in combat in the Gaza Strip," an army statement said.

"We know that in battle there are casualties," Israel's Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said after the news was released. 

"The residents of Shejaiya know they have fallen victim to Hamas," he said. 

"We have no intention of giving up our determination."

Several media reports said seven of the soldiers were killed when their armored personnel carrier (APC) was hit by an anti-tank missile in the early morning. As troops tried to extract the survivors, three more were killed by gunfire.

In a second attempt to reach the scene, another three soldiers were killed by an anti-tank missile, the reports said.

Sunday's bloody toll prompted urgent efforts by the International Committee of the Red Cross to broker a temporary ceasefire to allow paramedics to evacuate the dead and wounded in a deal accepted by both sides.

Inside the ravaged neighborhood of Shejaiya, there were hellish scenes of carnage and chaos as a convoy of ambulances rushed in to make the most of the calm, an Agence France-Presse correspondent said.

But it lasted less than an hour, with Israel accusing Hamas militants of firing in violation of the agreement, and saying its forces were "responding accordingly."

The Arab League lashed out at Israel for pounding Shejaiya, accusing Israel of "war crimes" and calling for an "immediate stop" to its offensive.

"What Shejaiya is undergoing today in terms of brutal bombing operations are war crimes against Palestinian civilians and a dangerous escalation that could have further consequences," Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said in a statement.

He called for an "immediate stop of Israeli aggression on Gaza and the necessary protection of Palestinian civilians."

"Israel is fully responsible for this crime that killed dozens of innocent Palestinian civilians," Arabi said.

Egypt's foreign ministry also "denounced the escalation of the military operation in Gaza, especially in Shejaiya."

It said Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri spoke to several Arab counterparts, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erakat over the Gaza crisis.

For its part, the Palestinian leadership condemned Shejaiya's bombardment as a "massacre."

In a statement, the newly-inaugurated Palestinian government described the attack as a "war crime" which required immediate international intervention.

"The Palestinian consensus government condemned in the strongest terms the heinous massacre committed by the Israeli occupation forces against innocent Palestinian civilians in the neighborhood of Shejaiya," it said. 

The office of President Mahmoud Abbas also issued a similar statement condemning the attack as a "massacre."

As the death toll in Gaza hit 425, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon headed to the region to add his weight to truce efforts and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was to hold talks in Qatar with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal.

So far, truce efforts have been rejected by the Islamist Hamas movement, which is the dominant power in Gaza. 

Undaunted by the Israeli bombardment by land, sea and air, it has pressed on with its own assaults. 

As Israel's blistering offensive on Shejaiya showed no sign of easing, thousands could be seen fleeing for their lives after heavy shelling left casualties lying in the streets, an AFP correspondent reported.

Footage from the area showed vast clouds of black smoke billowing into the sky as the shelling continued and Gaza's eastern flank burned. 

Ambulances were unable to reach much of the area along the border with Israel because of heavy fire. 

But as the ceasefire got under way, a convoy of ambulances entered, with medics seen picking up at least three dead bodies, including that of a man with his intestines hanging out and his head completely destroyed, the correspondent said.

The blackened shells of cars littered the streets along with the burnt-out wreckage of an ambulance, as smoke poured from areas that were still burning.

At least four men carrying machine-guns could be seen among the people evacuating the area, some of them masked, the correspondent said.

Among the dead were women and children, as well as a Palestinian paramedic and a cameraman who were killed when the ambulance they were in was hit, with the ongoing fire hampering efforts to recover the bodies. 

"He wasn't a fighter, he was a fighter for humanity," wailed one relative as the family buried him. 

"He was an ambulance worker, did he deserve to die?"

At Gaza City's Shifa hospital, casualties were being brought in by the minute, some in ambulances, others in cars and trucks.

Among them were many children screaming in agony, some peppered with shrapnel wounds. 

"This is the worst I've ever seen it," said Doctor Said Hassan, who has worked at the hospital for eight years. 

Fights broke out in the emergency room as hysterical parents banged on the walls in fear and sorrow.

"The shelling was non-stop, it was everywhere," Sabah Mamluk, 40, told AFP. 

"We ran into the streets and started to walk. It was terrifying," she said.

Israel said its ground operation to destroy the network of tunnels used by militants to stage cross-border attacks was to "expand" later Sunday. 

"This evening, the ground phase of Operation Protective Edge expands, as additional forces join the effort to combat terror in the Gaza Strip and establish a reality in which Israeli residents can live in safety and security," the army said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put the blame for civilian casualties squarely on Hamas, accusing the group of "using innocent civilians as human shields."

Later on Sunday, Netanyahu said that an operation to destroy a network of tunnels used by militants in Gaza could be over "fairly quickly" but would not be pinned down on specifics.

In an interview with CNN's "State of the Union" weekly talk show, Netanyahu also called for an international effort to demilitarize the enclave.

Israel said its ground operation to destroy the network of tunnels used by the militants to stage cross-border attacks was to "expand" later Sunday.

"We're taking action to neutralize the tunnels and do it as long as necessary," Netanyahu said.

But when asked later how long the destruction of the tunnels would take, he responded: "Fairly quickly."

"The important thing right now is not to begin to put terms. I think the important thing is to end the hostilities and then get into a situation where we have a sustainable ceasefire," he added.

In that context, Netanyahu called for the demilitarization of Gaza.

"Gaza, under all the previous agreements should have been demilitarized. Instead of being demilitarized it became an Iranian financed and equipped fortress of terror with thousands and thousands of rockets and other weapons being smuggled and developed in it. That has to stop. Those tunnels have to be shut down."

"I think the international community has to, once this is put in place, we really have to undertake a program to demilitarize Gaza and to change the situation because it's unacceptable," he added.

Netanyahu, while expressing regret for the civilian deaths, blamed Hamas for the bloodshed.

"Hamas is both targeting civilians and they are hiding behind civilians. That is a double war crime," he said in a separate interview with ABC's "This Week."

"All civilian deaths, as regrettable as they are, fall on their shoulders," he said.

In the evening, Netanyahu said there was "very strong" international support for Israel's military operation.

"We are carrying out a complex, deep, intensive activity inside the Gaza Strip and there is world support for this ... very strong support within the international community for the activity that the IDF is doing," he said at a press conference in the defense ministry in Tel Aviv. 

Netanyahu has said Israel won "international legitimacy" for its operation after it accepted an Egyptian truce proposal on July 15 which was shunned by Hamas. 

He said the operation would "expand as much as necessary" to restore the quiet for Israeli citizens.