At least 18 people, including sleeping women and children, were killed when Israeli tanks opened fire in an attack on Gaza early Wednesday morning. At least 13 members of one extended family died as tank fire hit their home. This is the single deadliest attack in four years, occurring during the week-long incursion in Beit Hanoun.

Attaf Hamad, a witness to the carnage, told reporters how tank shells demolished at least four houses in the attack. More than 40 people were injured. “It is the saddest scene and images I have ever seen. We saw legs, we saw heads, we saw hands scattered in the street,” Hamad said. “I saw people coming out of a house covered in blood. I started screaming to wake up the neighbors.”

Another shaken man stated, “Five of my brothers have no heads … my father-in-law has lost his legs, he’s left with just shattered flesh.” On the same day, Israeli troops killed 5 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and an additional 8 the day before.

Following the attack, The Palestinian prime minister said, “I call on the Security Council to hold an emergency meeting to stop these massacres against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank… A nation is being slain, a land is being destroyed. Jerusalem, al-Aqsa mosque and Islamic and Christian shrines are being desecrated in the Palestinian lands.”

Mahmud Abbas, the Palestinian president declared that if Israel wanted peace it would discontinue such acts of aggression. He said, “Our people are at the end of our tether. We need to speak up to tell the world, from the UN to Europe, to examine these acts of atrocity committed by Israel because a worldwide reaction is needed to bring them to an end.”

The Palestinian government has declared three days of mourning to commemorate those who died. Israeli officials apologized for the deaths, calling them a “regrettable incident”, but insisted the massacre was conducted to prevent Palestinians from firing rockets.

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