Moroccan children as young as eight, recruited as domestic workers, are frequently beaten, verbally abused and sometimes refused adequate food by their employers, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

Child domestic workers in Morocco, most of them girls, sometimes work for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and receive as little as $11 (8.60 euros) a month, HRW said in a report entitled "Lonely Servitude: Child Domestic Labor in Morocco."

The United States on Thursday blamed Hamas for an explosion of violence in Gaza after salvoes of rockets were fired into Israel in retaliation for the killing of the group's military chief.

Expressing regret for the victims on both sides of the conflict, White House spokesman Jay Carney said there was "no justification" for the violence on the part of Hamas, saying it "does nothing to help the Palestinians."

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinians to avoid escalating Gaza violence that has killed 15 Palestinians and three Israelis.

"The president of Russia called on the parties to exercise restraint and avoid the path of escalating violence, whose victims include civilians, and to do everything to return the situation to its normal course," the Kremlin said following a telephone conversation between Putin and Netanyahu.

Israel will take "whatever action is necessary" to defend its citizens from Palestinian rocket attacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday as Gaza's Hamas rulers noted that the current conflict “will shorten the era of occupation.”

Netanyahu's remarks at a televised press conference in Tel Aviv came after Israel carried out 24 hours of air strikes on Gaza, killing 15 Palestinians, at least seven of them Hamas militants.

Hundreds of Tunisians demonstrated on Thursday against Israel's deadly attacks on Gaza, as Israeli planes pounded armed groups in the Palestinian territory for a second day, an AFP journalist reported.

Several hundred protesters, gathered on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in the center of Tunis, shouted slogans such as "No to reconciliation," and "The people want to criminalize normalized relations with the (Zionist) entity."

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday that Turkey "recognizes the Syrian National Coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the people of Syria."

Davutoglu made the comments during a ministerial meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation which is being held in Djibouti, according to Anatolia news agency.

Israel's air strikes on the Gaza Strip have heightened the tensions surrounding the Palestinian bid for observer membership at the United Nations planned for later this month.

The Palestinian U.N. envoy said Wednesday's attack -- which killed the top Hamas military commander in the territory -- was deliberately timed to torpedo the U.N. vote in two weeks and influence Israel's general election in January.

Israel will never defeat Gaza, Khaled Meshaal, the exiled chief of the Hamas movement which rules the Palestinian territory, said in a defiant speech in Sudan on Thursday.

"This enemy is weak and cannot vanquish Gaza," Meshaal told a major conference of Sudanese Islamists.

Russia on Thursday warned nations backing the Syrian opposition against President Bashar Assad that they would violate international law if they started supplying the rebels with weapons.

"Promises are being made from a number of capitals of massive supplies of modern weapons," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Thursday that Hamas "bears principal responsibility" for the surge in deadly Gaza violence, saying it should cease attacks against Israel immediately.

He also strongly urged Israel to do its utmost to reduce tensions, avoid civilian casualties and help create the conditions for peace, warning: "It is imperative to avoid the risk of a spiral of violence."