Israel pounds Gaza with fierce airstrikes; at least 700 Palestinians killed.

ISLAMABAD -- Israel said on Tuesday it had reclaimed control of the Gaza border, pounding the enclave with the fiercest air strikes in the 75-year history of its conflict with the Palestinians despite a Hamas threat to execute a captive for each home hit. Nearly 700 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli strikes, according to officials, while whole districts in Gaza have been flattened. Air strikes wrought widespread destruction in the Jabalia

refugee camp, where charred bodies were pulled from the rubble and relatives wailed in grief. The United Nations said 180,000 Palestinians had been made homeless, many huddling on streets or in schools. Smoke and flames rose into the morning sky, while bombardment of the roads often made it impossible for emergency crews to reach the scene of strikes. At the morgue in Gaza's Khan Younis hospital, bodies were laid on the ground on stretchers with their names written on their

bellies. Medics called for relatives to pick up bodies quickly because there was no more space for the dead. There were heavy casualties in a former municipal building struck while being used as an emergency shelter for displaced families.

"There is an extraordinary number of martyrs, people are still under the rubble, some friends are either martyrs or wounded," said a Ala Abu Tair, 35, who had sought shelter there with his family after fleeing Abassan Al-Kabira near the border. "No place is safe in Gaza, as you see they hit everywhere." Three Palestinian journalists were killed when...