Eight children killed in an explosion in northern Gaza

A huge explosion in a public garden in northern Gaza killed eight children and two adults, and wounded 40 others, Palestinian doctors said today.

Locals blamed the blast on an Israeli air strike, but Israel denied responsibility, saying it was a misfire by a rocket launched by Hamas militants.

At roughly the same time, another blast shook the grounds of Gaza’s main Shifa hospital, without causing any casualties.

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Israeli tanks are seen in northern Gaza . Israel eased its assaults in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rocket fire from the enclave declined sharply, the military said, with both the United States and United Nations calling for a durable ceasefire. Photograph: Baz Ratner/Reuters

Israel, which has previously accused Hamas militants of hiding in the hospital, again blamed an errant missile. Pools of blood lay on the ground in the Beach refugee camp garden in the aftermath of the explosion.

“We came out of the mosque when I saw the children playing with their toy guns. Seconds later a missile landed,” said Munther Al-Derbi, a resident of the camp. “May God punish ... Netanyahu,” he said, referring to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Netanyahu said Israel must prepare for a long conflict in the Gaza Strip, squashing any hopes of a swift end to fighting that has already cost more than 1,000 lives.

In a televised address, a grim-faced Mr Netanyahu said that any solution to the crisis would require the demilitarisation of the Palestinian territory, which is controlled by Hamas Islamists and their militant allies.

“We will not finish the mission, we will not finish the operation without neutralizing the tunnels, which have the sole purpose of destroying our citizens, killing our children,” he said, adding that it had been a “painful day”.

Earlier, the Israeli army said Palestinian fighters had slipped across the border from the Gaza Strip, with media reporting casualties in an ensuing gunbattle.

There were also reports of four Israeli deaths in a mortar attack, as an unofficial truce called for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival disintegrated.

“We need to be prepared for a protracted campaign. We will continue to act with force and discretion until our mission is accomplished,” Mr Netanyahu said.

Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have been locked in three weeks of fighting which have killed 1,049 people in Gaza, mostly civilians.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the obstacle to ending fighting between Israel, Islamist Hamas militants and Palestinians in Gaza Strip was “political will.”

“It’s a matter of their political will. They have to show their humanity as leaders, both Israeli and Palestinian,” Ban told reporters. “Why these leaders are making their people to be killed by others? It’s not responsible, (it’s) morally wrong.”

Agencies