Gaza line war

Escalated Gaza offensive exacts steep price on both sides
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CBS/AP
Last Updated Jul 20, 2014 5:29 PM EDT

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip The first major ground battle in two weeks of Israel-Hamas fighting exacted a steep price Sunday: It killed 65 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers and forced thousands of terrified Palestinian civilians to flee their neighborhood, reportedly used to launch rockets at Israel and now devastated by the fighting.

In addition, a spokesman for Hamas' armed wing claimed the group had captured an Israeli soldier during the day's fighting. Israel had no immediate comment.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the offensive would continue "as long as necessary" to end attacks from Gaza on Israeli civilians.

But Hamas seems defiant, international cease-fire efforts are stalled, and international criticism is becoming more vocal as the death toll among Palestinian civilians rises.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called Israel's latest incursion "atrocious," and said it must do far more to protect civilians.

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Israel ground assault in Gaza
The U.N. Security Council is expected to meet in emergency session on Sunday night, at the request of Jordan, and called for by the Palestinians, CBS News' Pamela Falk reports.

After meeting with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Amir of the State of Qatar, Ban, at his first stop on a shuttle diplomacy trip to the region said, "Gaza is an open wound. We must stop the bleeding now."

In Israel, public opinion will struggle to tolerate rising military losses in an open-ended campaign. Already, Sunday's deaths marked the highest number of soldiers killed on a single day since Israel's war in Lebanon in 2006.

The ferocious battle in Gaza City's Shijaiyah neighborhood came on the third day of Israel's ground offensive, which had been preceded by a 10-day air campaign.

In all, at least 432 Palestinians were killed and more than 3,000 wounded in the past two weeks. The overall death toll on the Israeli side rose to 20, including 18 soldiers, along with dozens of wounded troops, during that period.

Sunday's battle began when Israeli troops backed by tanks entered the densely populated Shijaiyah district just after midnight Sunday. They were met by a "huge" level of resistance by Hamas fighters who fired anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons from houses and buildings, said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an army spokesman.

Residents said they came under intense Israeli tank fire.

"The gate of hell has opened, and shrapnel came through the windows," Shijaiyah resident Jawad Hassanain said by phone. He and his family fled to a nearby building after their house shook from explosions.

After daybreak, the extent of the devastation slowly became apparent: At least 65 Palestinians had been killed and nearly 300 wounded, Gaza health officials said, while dozens of homes badly damaged or destroyed.

Casualties were rushed to Gaza's central Shifa Hospital. Wailing parents, some covered with blood or dust from debris, carried children peppered by shrapnel, and the emergency room quickly overflowed, forcing doctors to treat some patients in a hallway.

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Adel Hana, AP
During a brief Red Cross-brokered lull later in the day, rescue workers toured the neighborhood to retrieve the dead, pulling bodies from the rubble of homes.

In a last sweep of the area on Sunday afternoon, rescue workers heard the faint voice of a woman in the rubble of a house.

"I'm here with my husband and niece," the woman said, adding that there were also three bodies near her. "I'm here under the shop. God please, I can't breathe."

In the incident witnessed by Associated Press journalists, rescue workers tried to organize a bulldozer, but the situation was deemed too dangerous and the crew left. Later, the rescue workers returned with a bulldozer, after coordination with Israeli forces through the Red Crescent, and pulled the three from the rubble, said Said Hamam, a member of the rescue services.

The 13 Israeli soldiers were