GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — An Israeli warplane dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on the home of one of Hamas’ top five decision-makers Thursday, instantly killing him and 18 others, while the Israeli army said troops massed on the Gaza border were ready for any order to invade.
The airstrike on Nizar Rayan was the first that succeeded in killing a member of Hamas’ highest echelon since Israel began its offensive Saturday. The 49-year-old professor of Islamic law was known for personally participating in clashes with Israeli forces and for sending one of his sons on a 2001 suicide mission that killed two Israelis.
The attacks continued today. Before dawn, Israeli aircraft hit 15 houses belonging to Hamas militants, Palestinians said. They said the Israelis either warned nearby residents by phone or fired a warning missile to reduce civilian casualties. Twelve people were hurt in the attacks, hospital officials said.
Even as it pursued its bombing campaign, Israel kept the way open for intense efforts by leaders in the Middle East and Europe to arrange a cease-fire. Israel said it would consider a halt to fighting if international monitors were brought in to track compliance with any truce.
Adding to the urgency of the diplomatic maneuvering, the Israeli military said its preparations for a possible ground assault were complete and that troops stood ready to cross the border if the air operation to stamp out Hamas rocket fire needed to be expanded.
The hit on Rayan’s home obliterated the four-story apartment building and peeled off the walls of others around it, creating a field of rubble in the crowded town of Jebaliya in the northern Gaza Strip. Mounds of debris thrown up by the blast swallowed up cars.
Eighteen other people, including all four of Rayan’s wives and nine of his 12 children, also were killed, Palestinian health officials said.
Israel’s military, which has said the homes of Hamas leaders are being used to store missiles and other weapons, said the attack on Rayan’s house triggered secondary explosions from the arms stockpiled there.
In his last interview, recorded with Hamas TV on Wednesday, Rayan was as defiant as ever about confronting the Israeli military.
“Oh fighters, know that you will be victorious,” he said. “God promises us either victory or martyrdom. God is greater than they are, God is greater than their planes, God is greater than their rockets.”
More than 400 Gazans had been killed and about 1,700 wounded since Israel embarked on its aerial campaign, Gaza health officials said. The United Nations has said the death toll includes more than 60 civilians, 34 of them children.
Since Saturday, three Israeli civilians and one soldier have also died in Hamas rocket attacks that have reached deeper into Israel than ever before, bringing more than a tenth of Israel’s population of 7 million within rocket range.
The bombing campaign has worsened an already hard life for Gaza’s mostly poor population of 1.5 million. On Thursday, hundreds of people stood in long, snaking lines across the territory waiting to buy bread.
Israel’s bruising campaign has not deterred Hamas from assaulting Israel. According to the military, militants fired more than 30 rockets into southern Israel during the day.
Israel launched the offensive Saturday after more than a week of intense Palestinian rocket fire that followed the expiration of a six-month truce, which Hamas refused to extend because Israel kept up its blockade of Gaza.
So far, the campaign has been conducted largely from the air. But a military spokeswoman, Maj. Avital Leibovich, said preparations for a ground operation were complete.
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