Fears escalating in Gaza as Israel expands list of airstrike targets

Hossam Al-Dadah was relieved that his five children could finally sleep though Israeli F16 fighter jets continued pounding the Gaza Strip for the fourth day. But at 6:00 a.m. Saturday, the warplanes dropped a bomb on the adjacent house of his neighbor in the Jabaliya refugee camp, one of the most densely populated spots in the coastal enclave. "I screamed over in search for my kids, but could not see or hear anything because of the dust, smoke and debris that filled the place," he recalled, standing inside his house that sustained damaged walls overlooking the targeted house, with a roughly two- meter-wide alley separating the two homes. After a while, Al-Dadah, 41, managed to get his kids from beneath their mattresses that were covered in dust because of the cement rubble. "They were unable to talk. They received a shock," he said. Now, the kids, aged between 6-14, are in hospital receiving treatment for moderate injuries. As dark was about to fall Saturday, the death toll among the Palestinians hit 40. Israel set off the fighting by killing Ahmed al-Jaabari, the commander of Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades of Islamic Hamas movement, which controls Gaza. The killing of al-Jaabari and his escort came on a quiet day just after Hamas said that it agreed with other militant groups here to a cease-fire after a routine wave of cross-border attacks. In recent hours, Israel has shifted its attacks to target the Hamas government's facilities, including the cabinet's building. The house itself that was hit in Jabaliya in the morning was for Ibrahim Salah, the director of the Interior Minister's office. The number of people wounded in the ongoing Israeli airstrikes, which exceeded 600 raids Saturday, is standing at 340, according to the Health Ministry. 25 people alone were wounded in a single airstrike that destroyed the house in Jabaliya. Adding the government premises to the list of Israeli targets increased fears among residents. Since the beginning of Israel's " Operation Pillar of Cloud," the airplanes mainly targeted open spaces from which militants fired their rockets into Israel. A truck loaded with mattresses, bedcovers and bags of clothes was about to leave Al-Dadah's house, but the family did not know where to go. The kids were already in the hospital and their mother was there taking care of them. "I will look for a place to hire and put these belongings inside. I do not yet know where to go. I'm a second-time refugee," he said, referring to the Israeli town of Ashkelon,which his parents left in 1948. Women, some of them his sisters, were collecting what they thought was needed most before evacuating the house. They were sure that they would not forget the cooking gas canister, the first aid kit, a laptop and cellphones chargers.