109 Gazans killed, 27 children

Nine more Palestinians, including four members of one family, have been killed in the latest airstrike on the besieged Gaza Strip, raising the death toll to 109 in the Israeli regime’s onslaught on the coastal enclave since November 14.

A family of four — a four-year-old child, an 18-month-old baby, and their parents — were killed on Monday in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the northern Gaza village of Beit Lahiya, Gaza hospital sources said.

The sources identified the father as Fuad Hijazi, 40, and his wife by her first name, Amna.

Twenty-seven Palestinian children have been killed since November 14 in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Earlier in the day, Israeli warplanes killed five Palestinians in the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, the hospital sources added.

Meanwhile, on Monday many Palestinian rockets hit several cities in southern Israel and three people were injured.

As Israel’s deadly offensive in Gaza continued on Monday, US President Barack Obama held a telephone conversation with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to explore the possibility of reaching an agreement on a ceasefire.

Later in the day, Netanyahu held discussions with his ministers over an Egyptian proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and artillery fire have left at least 109 Palestinians dead and over 900 others injured since November 14. Some of the injured are in critical condition.

Israel has conducted more than 1,350 aerial and sea attacks against the Gaza Strip since November 14.

Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.

The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.