Summary
Thousands of Gaza civilians flee after Israeli warning
Thousands fled their homes in a Gaza town on Sunday after Israel warned them to leave ahead of threatened attacks on rocket-launching sites, on the sixth day of an offensive that Palestinian officials said has killed at least 160 people.
U.N. officials said some 4,000 people had fled south to eight schools run by the world body in Gaza City.
Dozens of houses in parts of Beit Lahiya were levelled by Israeli bulldozers during a month-long Gaza war in late 2008 and early 2009 .
Hours before, 17 people were killed when the house of Gaza's police chief was bombed from the air -- the single deadliest attack of Israel's offensive.
The Health Ministry said at least 160 Palestinians, including about 135 civilians -- among them some 30 children, have been killed six days of warfare, and more than 1,000 have been wounded.
Hostilities along the Israel-Gaza frontier first intensified last month after Israeli forces arrested hundreds of Hamas activists in the Israeli-occupied West Bank following the abduction there of three Jewish teenagers who were later found killed.
No one has been killed by the more than 800 rockets the Israeli military said has been fired by Palestinians since the offensive began.
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