The head of Israel's military says its grand operation has begun in southern Gaza and that it will be no less powerful than the offensive in the north. An advisor to Israel's Prime Minister told the BBC Today that Israel was making the maximum effort, he said, to avoid killing civilians. The Hamas-run Health Ministry says 15,500 people have now been killed in Gaza since the start of this latest conflict.

Lost boys, brothers looking for their father. My dad's been killed. I swear my dad's been killed. They're lost in the mighty vengeance promised by Israel. Then they found their father and brother, they were dead. The strike, filmed by a freelance journalist, destroyed the home of the Abu Ida family in Jebalia, Northern Gaza. These are the latest Israeli army pictures. They're pushing forward into southern Gaza. The American Defense secretary says he's warned Israel repeatedly that if its troops don't stop killing so many Palestinians, they will drive civilians into the arms of Hamas, turning a tactical victory into a strategic defeat. In Khanni, civilian casualties are overwhelming the hospital. Israel insist civilians are getting warnings and time to get to designated safe areas. A UN official on the spot says that's not happening.

Everything's broken down. The war on children has resumed, and with the ferocity, at least here in Southern Qatar, that has not been seen before during this war. Another narrative that is so dangerous, this idea of what happened in the north will not be allowed to happen in the south. Well, I can bear witness to its happening.

On the West Bank, the village of Karawad, Ben-i-Hassan was mourning Ahmed Mustafa-Assie. Local people said he was killed last night by armed Israelis from a nearby Jewish settlement. Palestinians said Jewish settlers entered the village late on Saturday afternoon protected by the Israeli army. Settlers, they said, opened fire when local men rushed to stop them burning cars and a house. It was dark by the time they found the body of Ahmed Mustafa-Assie. They prepared the father of six for burial. Attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians are repeatedly condemned by the Americans, British, and other allies of Israel. Around noon, after the funeral, the men of the village paid their respects to Ahmed As-Sy's family.

Settler.

Violence against Palestinians has risen sharply since Hamas attacked on October the seventh. It is rarely prosecuted. Among the mourners was the dead man's eldest son, Noor. The settlers are violently opposed to a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and they have powerful allies in the Israeli government. The lack of security has helped them act like this, said Othman, Ahmad Nassif's brother. The army are protecting them, not stopping them, but the future will be good, as God promised us. This land is ours, this country is ours, he said. One thing has come out very strongly in the last couple of days of talking to Palestinians in the West Bank. Something has changed since October the seventh. The settlers are more aggressive, they're better armed, and they're pushing harder. The increase in violence is a direct result of the Gaza War, making international protests that the settlements are illegal, even less important to those who believe God gave this land to the Jews.

You speak a lot about the law, the international law, it's not exist here because Arabs all the time break the international law.

What about all these videos of young men, settlers with guns, intimidating Palestinians.

We're not happy to carry weapons. I don't like weapons. But if we not carry weapons, destroyed us. The Arabs destroyed all the Jewish people.

After this war, the Americans want an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel to secure the future. The rising violence in the West Bank shows that might be impossible. Jeremy Bowne, BBC News, Jerusalem.