Israel on Monday bombed the Islamic University and a government compound in Gaza City, key centers of Hamas power, in the third day of its aerial assault on the . Witnesses saw fire and smoke at the university, counting six separate airstrikes there just after midnight.

Other targets were a guest palace used by the Hamas government and the house next to Gaza Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s home in a refugee camp adjacent to Gaza City. He was not home, as Hamas leaders have gone into hiding.

In the southern town of Rafah, Palestinians said a toddler and his two teenage brothers were killed in an airstrike aimed at a Hamas commander.

IAF warplanes bombed the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza on Monday, the first air strike that targeted a government building in Israel’s offensive, the Palestinian faction said.

No immediate word was available on whether there were any casualties.

At first light Monday, strong winds blew black smoke from the bombed sites in Gaza City over deserted streets. The air hummed with the buzz of pilotless drones and the roar of jets, punctuated by the explosions of new airstrikes.

IAF warplanes pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for a third consecutive day on Monday and Israel prepared to launch a possible invasion after killing 307 Palestinians in the air raids.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the military action would go on until the population in southern Israel “no longer live in terror and in fear of constant rocket barrages”.

“(The operation could) take many days,” said Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Avi Benayahu.

At least 51 civilians in the Gaza Strip have been killed in Israeli air strikes since Saturday, according to a tally by a UN aid agency.

“It is likely to be conservative and it is certainly rising,” UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness said on Monday. He said the estimate was based on visits by UNRWA officials to hospitals and medical centres across the Gaza Strip.

Israel News