Israel Calls Up 16,000 Additional Reservists

As violence on the Gaza Strip continued to escalate, Israel's military called up 16,000 additional reservists, taking up their total to 86,000, an Army spokeswoman said Thursday. 

"The army has issued 16,000 additional mobilization orders to allow troops on the ground to rest, which takes the total number of reservists to 86,000," said the spokeswoman, AFP reports.

Talking to Israeli reporters, authorities said that the call-up gave the military "room to breathe".

This call-up to add more reservists comes as Israel pledged to investigate a strike on a UN-run school that killed at least 16 people.

BBC quotes spokesman Mark Regev as saying: "If it discovered that Israel's fire was responsible for the strike on the school, it would apologise."

According to Palestinian officials, more than 100 people were killed Wednesday on the Gaza Strip.

"We have a policy - we don't target civilians," he said.

The United States as well as the United Nations had condemned the attack on the school. The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, called it "unjustifiable".

Meanwhile, Israel's security cabinet met for five hours Wednesday and unanimously decided to continue its attacks against the Hamas "terrorist targets" as well as other operations so as to destroy the network of tunnels, which is used by the Islamist movement between Gaza and Israel, the public radio announced. It further said that another meeting of the cabinet, comprising of eight ministers, will be held Thursday afternoon, Voice of America reports.

Officials at Gaza said that at least 1,361 Palestinians, most of whom were civilians, have been killed since the attacks began. On the other hand, Israel has lost 56 soldiers and three civilians in the clashes.