(AP)
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An Israeli missile flattened a two-story house in a residential neighborhood of Gaza City today, killing at least 10 civilians, medical officials say, as Israel expanded its targets of its offensive to target homes of wanted militants. The attack, the single deadliest incident of the five-day-old Israeli operation, was likely to raise international pressure for a halt to the offensive. The airstrike targeted the home of the Daloo family in Gaza City's Nasser neighborhood, reducing it to rubble. Five women, including one 80-year-old, and four small children were among the dead, says a Gaza health official.
The Israeli military said the target of the attack was a top rocket mastermind of the Islamic Jihad militant group. The claim could not be verified, and the official says the two men killed in the attack were also civilians. Israel's new tactic of hitting the family homes of suspected militant figures runs the risk of increasing civilian casualties. More than a dozen Hamas-linked houses were hit today. Some were empty after residents fled to find shelter elsewhere, but in several strikes, women, children, and civilian men were killed or wounded. US President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both spoke about the Israel-Gaza conflict today.
