GAZA CITY: 12 Palestinians were killed and over 100, mostly women and children, wounded Monday evening when Israeli warplanes attacked a residential area in the Gaza City. Tens of Thousands of Gazens rushed to the street protesting the Israeli cruelty, and a state of shock has engulfed the occupied Palestinian territories.

The attack came one day after the Palestinian group Hamas announced it’s willingness to stop bombing Israeli targets, in exchange for the withdrawal of the Israeli army from recently occupied West Bank cities, and the end of the assassination policy carried out by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The offer was made by Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas during an interview with Al Jazeera satellite television. The Israeli response however came in a different form than expected.

Witnesses to Monday's killings said that an Israeli F-16 warplane fired several missiles at Palestinian homes, apparently targeting the house of Saleh Shehade, a Hamas activist in Gaza, reducing his home and several others around it to rubble.

Officials at a local hospital say as many as 140 people have been wounded.

“They (the Israelis) are so cruel, so merciless. Why don’t they just leave us alone. Leave our land, get out of our lives,” a Palestinian man wept as he tried to help in the rescue efforts.

Another lamented as he gazed at a body of a little girl being dragged, crushed and clearly dead, from under the rubble: “what crime did that little girl commit. I don’t think she is even old enough to understand that her crime was being a Palestinian.”

Hundreds of people crowded the area, leveled to the ground and chants of “god is great,” were heard every time a dead civilian is brought out from under the rubble. Many of the dead and wounded were children.

Earlier, a Hamas spokesman said that Salah Shehade, a leading activist, was among those killed in the attack. But the spokesman confirmed later that Shehade is still alive.

The attack comes as officials from both sides held a somewhat successful meeting to reduce the tension created by the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Israel’s attack on Gaza however worsened the situation.

“This exactly what Sharon wants,” a Palestinian political analyst from the West Bank told the Palestine Chronicle in condition of anonymity. “Every time you have some progress and calm, Sharon provokes Palestinians to retaliate. It’s his policy and ever-successful agenda.”

“The fact that the attack targeted a Hamas leader was a response to the offer made by Sheik Yassin to end hostility and occupation. Sharon doesn't want to give Hamas the chance to appear reasonable before the world media. Now, what else do you expect from Hamas but to hit back, and when they do, the Israelis will scream foul and say that they are fighting a war on terror.”

A Hamas leader in Gaza, Dr. Abdul Aziz Rantisi was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying, in response to the attack: “there shall be no calm, no rest. We will retaliate to the Israeli attack and will reach Israelis even in their own homes.”