Nov 18, 2012

At least 11 civilians in Gaza were killed Sunday as a result of an Israeli airstrike as the conflict between Israel and Hamas carried on for a fifth day. According to Palestinian medics, Sunday’s incident was the highest civilian death toll in a single incident during five days of fighting, reported Reuters.

Here’s a look at the recent conflict via photos from AFP, Getty and Reuters photographers in the region. | NOTE: Some photos are graphic showing visual coverage of injury or death.

: NOVEMBER 18 — Palestinians are seen from a damaged car window as they gather around the scene of an Israeli airstrike on a motorcycle in Gaza City November 18, 2012. (Ahmed Zakot/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 18 — A Palestinian woman holds her belongings at the site of her destroyed house after an Israeli air strike in Rafah in southern Gaza Strip November 18, 2012. (Ibrahemm Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 18 — A man with a Palestinian flag climbs a street pole during clashes with Israeli security forces outside Ofer prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah November 18, 2012. The clashes broke out following a protest against Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip. (Mohamad Torokman/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 18 — A Palestinian relative of four sibling children of the al-Dalo family, who were killed in an Israeli air strike, reacts as he stands next their bodies at a hospital in Gaza City November 18, 2012. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 18 — Palestinians gather around a destroyed house after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City November 18, 2012. Ten Palestinian civilians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza, Palestinian medics said, the highest civilian death toll in a single incident during five days of fighting. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 18 — Palestinians run after an Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City November 18, 2012. Israel bombed militant targets in Gaza for a fifth straight day on Sunday. (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 18 — A Palestinian man reacts at the scene of an Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City November 18, 2012. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 18 — Israelis embrace as they take cover in a stairwell during the sounding of a siren warning of incoming rockets in the coastal city of Ashkelon November 18, 2012. (Nir Elias/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 18 — Israelis gather next to a house that was hit by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip on November 18, 2012 in Ashkelon, Israel. Israeli/Gaza attacks have entered the fifth day. (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 18 — A man touches the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, as he takes part in a mass prayer for soldiers and civilians, in Jerusalem’s Old City November 18, 2012. The prayer took place on Sunday as Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip continued for a fifth straight day. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 18 — An Israeli woman takes cover as a siren sounds warning of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, in the southern town of Ofakim November 18, 2012. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 18 — An Iron Dome anti-missile battery is seen in the background (L) during a news conference with Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak, near Tel Aviv November 18, 2012. (Daniel Bar-On/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 18 — An Israeli soldier jumps off a mobile artillery unit near the border with the Gaza Strip November 18, 2012. At least 11 Palestinian civilians, including four children, were killed on Sunday in what Hamas said was an Israeli air strike on a Gaza apartment building, the highest death toll in a single incident in five days of fighting. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 18 — Israeli soldiers do their morning prayers in a deployment area on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, on November 18, 2012 , in Israel. (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 18 — Israeli soldiers do their morning prayers in a deployment area on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, on November 18, 2012 in Israel. Israeli shelling of Gaza has entered its fifth day, with two media buildings being recently struck and several journalists injured. (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 18 — Palestinian mourners pray over the body of 18-month-old Eyad Abu Khosa, killed in the latest Israeli airstrikes, during his funeral in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on November 18, 2012. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is ready to “significantly expand” its operation against militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip as it entered its fifth day. (Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 17 — Left wing Israeli activists demonstrate against the Israeli airstrike in Gaza on November 17, 2012 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 17 — Right wing activists wave the Israeli flag as left wing Israeli activists demonstrate against the Israeli airstrike in Gaza on November 17, 2012 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 17 — Palestinian paramedics carry an injured woman on a stretcher following an Israeli air raid on a house in Beit Lahia, the northern Gaza Strip on November 17, 2012. Israeli air strikes hit the cabinet headquarters of Gaza’s Hamas government, the group said early on November 17, with eyewitnesses reporting extensive damage to the building. (Mohammed Abred/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 17 — Palestinians search for victims under the rubble of the destroyed house of a Hamas official after an Israeli air strike in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip November 17, 2012. I(Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 17 — A wounded Palestinian child is carried into a hospital after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip November 17, 2012. (Ali Hassan/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 17 — Palestinians are seen through a hole in the wreckage as they inspect the destroyed office building of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City November 17, 2012. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 17 — Israeli civilians run for cover during a rocket attack launched from from Gaza on November 17, 2012 in Tel Aviv, Israel. At least 39 Palestinians and three Isreali’s have died since conflict began four days ago. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 17 — Israeli civilians run for cover during a rocket attack launched from from Gaza on November 17, 2012 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 17 — Palestinian protesters throw stones during clashes with Israeli security forces against Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, in Qalandiya checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah November 17, 2012. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 17 — An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man stands in front of an Iron Dome rocket shield battery in the southern city of Ashdod November 17, 2012. Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza on Saturday, including the prime minister’s office, after Israel’s cabinet authorised the mobilisation of up to 75,000 reservists, preparing for a possible ground invasion. (Darren Whiteside/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 17 — Wounded Palestinians lie on hospital beds after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip November 17, 2012. Israel’s Cabinet authorised the mobilisation of up to 75,000 reservists, preparing the ground for a possible invasion into Gaza. (Ali Hassan/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 17 — A rocket is launched from Gaza as seen from near Sderot on November 17, 2012 in Israel. At least 39 Palestinians and three Isreali’s have died since conflict began four days ago. Israeli troops have been massing on the border as some 200 targets were hit overnight in Gaza, including Hamas cabinet buildings. (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 17 — An Israeli missile from the Iron Dome defense missile system is launched to intercept and destroy incoming rocket fire from Gaza on November 17, 2012 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Israeli troops have been massing on the border as some 200 targets were hit overnight in Gaza, including Hamas cabinet buildings. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 17 — In this handout image supplied by the office of the Palestinian president, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas conducts a meeting of the leaders of the security services on November 17, 2012 in Ramallah, West Bank. Abbas has reportedly reached out to Arab and Western leaders for aid in the face of the heightening conflict between Israel and Gaza. (Thaer Ghanaim /PPO via Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 17 — Israeli children wave their national flag as they greet an army convoy passing on a road leading to the Israel-Gaza border near the southern Israeli town of Ofakim on November 17, 2012 in Israel. (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 16 — Smoke plumes rise over Gaza following Israel Air Force bombing on November 16, 2012 near Sderot, Israel. Conflict between the Israeli military and Palestian militants has intensified over the last few days, with Israel striking some 130 targets overnight. (Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 16 — Israeli soldiers prepare armoured personnel carriers (APC) at an area near the border with the Gaza Strip November 16, 2012. Israel has started drafting 16,000 reserve troops, the military said on Friday, in a sign that violence could escalate further with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 16 — A woman cries during the funeral of Itzik Amsalam, who was killed on Thursday after a rocket fired from Gaza landed in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi November 16, 2012. (Nir Elias/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 16 — Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a fire after an Israeli air strike on the building of Hamas’ Ministry of Interior in Gaza City November 16, 2012. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 16 — The brother of Palestinian boy Faris Basyoni, who was killed in an Israeli air strike, looks at his blood on a wall at his family’s damaged house in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip November 16, 2012. Basyoni was killed on Thursday night when an Israeli air strike hit his family house. Egypt opened a tiny window to emergency peace diplomacy in Gaza on Friday, but hopes for even a brief ceasefire while its prime minister was inside the bombarded enclave to talk to leaders of the Islamist Hamas movement were immediately dashed. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 16 — Palestinians, with Hamas flags, take part in a demonstration in solidarity with Gaza and against Israel’s military operation in the coastal enclave, in the West Bank city of Ramallah November 16, 2012. (Mohamad Torokman/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 16 — An Israeli soldier fires a tear gas canister towards Palestinian stone throwers on route 60, mainly used by Israeli settlers, in the West Bank village of Beit Omar, on November 16, 2012. Thousands of angry Palestinians rallied across the West Bank, urging Hamas militants to “bomb Tel Aviv” as Israel pursued a relentless air campaign on the Gaza Strip. (Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 16 — Israeli soldiers rest inside a large concrete pipe used a as shelter for rockets fired by Palestinian militans in the Gaza Strip, on November 16, 2012 at the Israel-Gaza Strip border. (Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 16 — Israelis take cover in a bomb shelter in central Tel Aviv as sirens wail on November 16, 2012. (Daniel Bar-On/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 16 — Israelis take cover in a bomb shelter in central Tel Aviv as sirens wail on November 16, 2012. A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip crashed into the sea off Tel Aviv in the second incident in as many days, police and an eyewitness told AFP, shortly after sirens wailed across the city. (Daniel Bar-On/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 16 — The mother of 10-month-old Palestinian girl, Hanen Tafesh, killed the day before in an Israeli air strike, is comforted by her husband and relatives as she mourns before her funeral in Gaza City, on November 16, 2012. (Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 16 — Palestinian boy Fares Sadallah, 11, cries as he sits outside his home which was damaged following an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, on November 16, 2012. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 16 — Firefighters try to extinguish a fire at the Civilian Affairs branch of the Ministry of Interior following an Israeli air raid in Gaza City on November 16, 2012. (Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 16 — Relatives grieve at the funeral for Itzik Amsalem, 49, one of the three people who died in a rocket attack on November 16, 2012 in Kiryat Malachi, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 16 — An Iron Dome launcher fires an interceptor rocket in the southern city of Ashdod November 16, 2012. A ceasefire that Israel declared for a visit by Egypt’s prime minister to the Gaza Strip on Friday collapsed after Palestinians continued cross-border rocket attacks and Israel launched air strikes in the enclave. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 15 — Israeli soldiers take cover as an air raid siren warns of incoming rockets before the funeral of Aaron Smadja, one of the three Israelis killed by a rocket fired from Gaza, at a cemetery in the southern city of Kiryat Malachi November 15, 2012. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 15 — Palestinian relatives of Hisham Ghalban mourn over his body in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 15, 2012. (Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 15 — Israelis sit inside a sewage pipe used as shelter during alert, warning of incoming rockets, in the southern community of Nitzan, near Ashdod November 15, 2012. (Nir Elias/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 15 — An Israeli missile is launched from the Iron Dome missile system in the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva in response to a rocket launch from the nearby Palestinian Gaza Strip, on November 15, 2012. (Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 15 — An Israeli man stands in front of an apartment building which was hit by a rocket launched from Gaza and claimed three lives on November 15, 2012 in Kiryat Malachi, Israel. The rocket attack happened some 24 hours after the IDF targeted nearly 200 sites in the Gaza Strip, killing Ahmed Jabari, a top military commander of Hamas, in the process. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 15 — A Palestinian medic tends to a wounded woman after an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip November 15, 2012. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 15 — A Palestinian reacts to the death of a relative outside Nassir hospital after Israeli air strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip November 15, 2012. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 15 — A Palestinian man looks at the damage after Israeli air strikes in Gaza City November 15, 2012. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 15 — A Palestinian man checks his damaged house after Israeli air strikes in Gaza City November 15, 2012. Israel exchanged the fiercest fire with Hamas in years after assassinating its military mastermind and threatening a wider offensive in the Gaza Strip to stem Palestinian rocket salvoes. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 15 — A 155mm mobile cannon (front) is seen after it was transported to an area just outside the northern Gaza Strip November 15, 2012. Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip targeted Tel Aviv on Thursday in the first attack on Israel’s commercial capital in 20 years, raising the stakes in a showdown between Israel and the Palestinians that is moving towards all-out war. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 15 — Palestinians carry the body of Ahmed Al-Jaabari, Hamas’s military mastermind, during his funeral in Gaza City November 15, 2012. Hamas fired dozens of rockets into southern Israel on Thursday, killing three people, while Israel launched numerous air strikes across the Gaza Strip, threatening a wider offensive to halt repeated Palestinian salvoes. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 15 — Palestinians carry the body of Ahmed Al-Jaabari, Hamas’s military mastermind, during his funeral in Gaza City November 15, 2012. Al-Jaabari was killed Wednesday after a precision Israeli airstrike, marking the beginning of the offensive. (Ali Hassan/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 15 — Israelis react and seek cover as a siren sounds warning of incoming rockets in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi November 15, 2012. A Hamas rocket killed three Israelis north of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, drawing first blood from Israel as the Palestinian death toll rose to 13 and the military showdown lurched closer to all-out war. (Nir Elias/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 15 — Israelis run for cover as a siren sounds warning of incoming rockets in Ashdod November 15, 2012. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 14 — A Palestinian carries a wounded woman into a hospital after Israeli air strikes in Gaza City November 14, 2012. (Saleh Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 14 — Israeli children sit in a bomb shelter on November 14, 2012 in Netivot, Israel. Israel Defense Forces launched aerial attacks on targets in Gaza that killed the top military commander of Hamas. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 14 — Israeli border police scuffle with Palestinian and international activists as they block a road used by Israeli settlers near the West Bank village of Shuqba, northwest of Ramallah November 14, 2012. (Mohamad Torokman/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 14 — Palestinians extinguish the fire after an Israeli air strike on a car in Gaza City November 14, 2012. (Ali Hassan/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 14 — An Israeli border police officer fires tear gas towards Palestinian activists attempting to block a road in the West Bank town of Jericho November 14, 2012. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 14 — Israeli soldiers stand guard near Palestinian activists as they attempt to block a road in the West Bank town of Jericho November 14, 2012. Demonstrators against Israeli occupation of the West Bank repeatedly blocked main roads mostly used by Israeli settlers on Wednesday, as part of a “popular resistance” campaign weeks ahead of a Palestinians’ U.N. statehood bid. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 14 — Smoke rises following Israeli air strikes in Gaza City November 14, 2012. An Israeli official said on Wednesday the assassination of Hamas’s top commander in the Gaza Strip was not the end of Israel’s assault on the coastal territory and more strikes would follow. Ahmed Al-Jaabari, Hamas’s military chief, was killed when his car was hit by an Israeli airstrike. Multiple other Israeli attacks rocked the Gaza Strip. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

: NOVEMBER 14 — Israelis watch Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on TV in a bomb shelter on November 14, 2012 in Netivot, Israel. Israel Defense Forces launched aerial attacks on targets in Gaza that killed the top military commander of Hamas, (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

: NOVEMBER 14 — Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes in the northern Gaza Strip November 14, 2012. (Darren Whiteside/Reuters)

More diplomacy to try to halt Israel-Gaza fighting
Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ori Lewis | Reuters
9:41 p.m. EST, November 18, 2012

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Hostilities between Islamist militants and Israel entered a sixth day on Monday as diplomatic efforts were set to intensify to try to stop rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli air strikes on Gaza.

International pressure for a ceasefire seemed certain to mount after the deadliest single incident in the flare-up on Sunday claimed the lives of at least 11 Palestinian civilians, including four children.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was due to arrive in Cairo to add his weight to the truce efforts. Egypt has taken the lead in trying to broker a ceasefire and its officials met the parties on Sunday.

Israeli media said a delegation from Israel had been to Cairo for talks on ending the fighting, although a government spokesman declined to comment on the matter.

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi met Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, and Ramadan Shallah of Islamic Jihad as part of the mediation efforts, but a statement did not say if talks were conclusive.

Izzat Risheq, a close aide to Meshaal, wrote in a Facebook message that Hamas would agree to a ceasefire only after Israel “stops its aggression, ends its policy of targeted assassinations and lifts the blockade of Gaza”.

Listing Israel’s terms, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon wrote on Twitter: “If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel’s citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack.”

Israel withdrew settlers from Gaza in 2005 and two years later Hamas took control of the impoverished enclave, which the Israelis have kept under blockade.

The 11 Palestinian civilians were apparently killed during an Israeli attack on a militant, which brought a three-storey house crashing down on them.

Gaza health officials have said 75 Palestinians, 21 of them children and several women, have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s offensive began. Hundreds have been wounded.

Airstrikes, unrest continue in conflict between Israel and Hamas for fifth day

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