18 in 1 Family Killed in Gaza Shelling

A Palestinian boy watches mourners carry the bodies of 5 dead Palestinians during their funeral in the West Bank village of Yamoun near Jenin Wednesday Nov. 8, 2006. Israeli forces ambushed a group of Palestinian militants in Yamoun near the West Bank town of Jenin early Wednesday, killing four, Palestinian security officials said. During the gun battle that ensued a 30-year-old civilian man who went out to a rooftop to see what happened was shot and killed, security and medical officials said. The military said it was checking the report.(AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas) (Mohammed Ballas - AP)

Khaled Radi, a health ministry official, said all the dead belonged to the same family. More than 50 people were wounded, 14 of them seriously, Radi said.

A military spokeswoman said artillery rounds were fired at Palestinian rocket-launching sites, but far from the apartment compound.

Abbas warned that Israel would have to "shoulder all the consequences for these crimes," and Haniyeh said the Palestinians reserved the right to "self-defense."

Rahwi Hamad, 75, said he rushed outside after being awoken by blasts around 5:15 a.m.

"I saw people coming out of the house, bleeding and screaming. I carried out a young girl covered with blood," Hamad said. "Inside the houses, we evacuated dismembered bodies ... There was a smell of blood and the stench of burnt bodies."

Weeping relatives gathered outside the homes. Thousands, including relatives of the dead, massed outside Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, where some of the bodies were brought, along with. white shrouds for burial.

Hospital director Mahmoud Al-Asali said ambulances carried three and four victims at a time, in some cases heaping bodies over the wounded in their rush to get to the hospital.

"I have worked here as director for five years, and this is the most terrible scene I've ever seen," Al-Asali said.

Mashaal said that his group's militants will answer the deaths with "deeds, not words."

"The truce (with Israel) ended at the end of 2005," Mashaal told a news conference in the Syrian capital. "The armed struggle is free to resume, and the resistance is dictated by local circumstances."

The truce formally ended last year but had remained in effect.

Hamas' military wing called on Muslims around the world to target "the American enemy."