The Palestinian civilian death toll mounted on Monday morning, as Israeli aircraft struck densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip in its campaign to quell rocket fire menacing nearly half of Israel's population.
Eighty-four Palestinians, about half of them civilians, have been killed in the five-day onslaught.
Three Israeli civilians have died from Palestinian rocket fire and dozens have been wounded.
Israel launched the current offensive on Wednesday, after months of intensifying rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, which continued despite the strikes.
Some 1 350 targets have been struck since the operation began last week.
The densely-populated Gaza strip is home to 1.6-million Palestinians.
