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Despite the Israeli bombardment and the overwhelming need to go into hiding, Hamas continues to operate and has even managed to launch several rockets into the Jewish state's territory, whose defense minister warned that his country is ready to fight until the bitter end.

In three days of bombing, the number of deaths rose to 315, including seven children under 15 years who died in separate attacks Sunday night and Monday, doctors reported.

There are some 1,400 wounded, according to reports from a UN agency that provides aid to the Palestinians. The agency said that at least 51 of those killed in the offensive were civilians.

In northern Gaza, a father raises his arms in the body of her son four years old during a funeral for a family of five children killed in an Israeli missile attack.

On Sunday night an Israeli missile killed a hunt for a woman, three girls and a baby, said Health Ministry official in Gaza, Dr. Moaiya Hassanain.

In the southern town of Rafah, a baby and her two teenage brothers were killed in an attack aimed at a Hamas commander, said Hassanain. In Gaza, another attack killed one man and his wife.

The nine hospitals in Gaza are not cope with the number of wounded have been hospitalized, said Hassanain. Some of the 1,400 injured were being taken to private clinics and even homes to be served.

Egypt on Monday opened its borders with Gaza, allowing trucks loaded with humanitarian aid entering the Rafah terminal. It was also getting injured Palestinians in Gaza. More than a dozen ambulances waited at the Egyptian border to transport the injured.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Tzipi Livni, told reporters on Monday that Israel was trying to avoid civilian deaths and that "Hamas are trying to kill children."

In Damascus, Syria, a senior Hamas official said that there will be no truce talks with Israel until the attack and Israel reopened its crossings with Gaza.

"We need our freedom. We need to be independent," said Abu Marzouk, told The Associated Press. "If we do not achieve this goal, we must resist. It is our right."

The attacks have forced Hamas leaders to go into hiding and have affected the organization's ability to launch rockets against Israel, but the barrage continued.

A medium-range rocket fired at the Israeli city of Ashkelon on Monday, killing a construction worker of Arab origin, and wounded others. It was the second Israeli to die since the start of the offensive.

Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense minister, said the army's fight is not against the people of Gaza, but that his country is ready to fight until the bitter end "and that the operation" will be expanded and deepened in line as necessary. "

Israel began its campaign, the most offensive against Palestinians in decades, on Saturday in response to a series of rocket attacks against civilians in a city south of Israel.

On Sunday, rockets Hamas came close to Ashdod, the largest city in southern Israel, located about 38 kilometers (23 miles) from Gaza and a few 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Tel Aviv. It is the increased penetration of missiles into Israeli territory of Palestinians living memory.

At dawn on Monday, the winds lifted the black smoke of the sites bombed in Gaza surrounded by deserted streets. You could hear the hum of aircraft autopilots and the noise of the jets along with the explosion of new attacks.

The intense bombardment _unos 300 Israeli air strikes since midday sábado_ caused unprecedented destruction in Gaza. Some buildings were reduced to rubble.

One attack destroyed a five-storey building in the section for women in the Islamic University, one of the most important symbols of Hamas. Another attack blew up a set of preventive security forces of the leaders of the group and a third destroyed the house next to the residence of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister. Like the other leaders of Hamas, Haniyeh remains hidden.