An Israeli air strike killed a senior commander of Hamas' military wing on Saturday. The overnight air strike in Gaza killed Abu Zakaria al-Jamal, a senior leader of Hamas' armed wing, the movement said. The Israeli army said only that it carried out a series of air attacks throughout the night.
Meanwhile, Gaza medical sources put the Palestinian casualty toll at at least 429 dead and 2,000 wounded and a United Nations agency said more than a quarter of those killed were civilians. A leading Palestinian human rights group put the figure at 40 percent. According to Reuters, 10 Palestinians were killed on Friday in more than 30 Israeli air strikes. Seven of them were civilians, including five children, local medics said.
U.S. President George W. Bush, in his first public comments on the hostilities that erupted less than a month before he leaves office, said: "Another one-way ceasefire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable." "And promises from Hamas will not suffice -- there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end," he said in remarks prepared for his weekly Saturday radio address, which was released on Friday.
