Israeli strikes kill 2 in Gaza; official’s home hit

A new round of Israeli airstrikes and tank fire pounded Gaza on Monday as officials in the coastal strip said two more Palestinian civilians died from the violence.

There has so far been no end in sight for the violence, which has already killed more than 2,100 Palestinians since the fighting erupted on July 8. The United Nations says about 75 percent of the Palestinians killed have been civilians. On the Israeli side, 68 people have been killed, all but four of them soldiers.

The Israeli military said it carried out 16 airstrikes on Gaza early Monday, targeting a mosque it said was used to store weapons and another it said fighters used as a meeting point.

The military also said that Palestinian fighters from the densely populated strip fired 10 rockets into Israel on Monday, all of which landed in open areas. Since the fighting began, Israel has launched some 5,000 airstrikes at Gaza, while Palestinian fighters have fired close to 4,000 rockets and mortars, according to the Israeli military.

Gaza police said one of the Israeli strikes hit the home of Omar al-Bursh, a Hamas justice ministry official, who was not harmed in the attack. Another airstrike severely damaged the departure lounge at Gaza's border crossing with Egypt, police said.

A 42-year-old woman died from tank fire in the north of the Palestinian territory, while a 22-year-old man died from his wounds on Monday after being hit in an airstrike in Gaza City shortly before midnight, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said.

The latest attacks came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the Israeli military campaign in Gaza could go into September.

Speaking to his Cabinet Sunday, Netanyahu said the public must show patience. "I said on the first day of the operation that it could take time, and we are prepared that this campaign might continue even after the start of the school year," he said.

"I call on the inhabitants of Gaza to vacate immediately every site from which Hamas is carrying out terrorist activity. Every one of these places is a target for us," he added.

Hamas dismissed as a sign of weakness on Sunday the warnings from Netanyahu for Gaza residents to leave any site where Palestinian fighters are operating.

"The [Israeli] occupation has failed in confronting the resistance in the field, and has resorted to threats of assassination and other threats designed to scare us,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. "But the will of our people will not be broken."

At least 27 Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli strikes over the weekend.

Several rounds of indirect talks in Cairo between Israel and a Palestinian delegation that included Hamas have collapsed, along with temporary cease-fires that accompanied them.

Al Jazeera and wire services