Israeli PM defends army on preventing side damage

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday lashed out against critics of his country's military air strike campaign against militants in Gaza.

Speaking at a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tel Aviv he accused Hamas militants in Gaza of "double war crimes", and said that criticism of Israel's military air strikes "does enormous damage to democracies that are fighting this kind of evil."

"No army in the world does more than the Israeli army and the Israeli security services and Israeli intelligence to prevent collateral damage," he said.

Netanyahu's government has been criticized since the beginning of the most recent conflict between militants in Gaza and Israel's military, which has led to the deaths of at least 219 Palestinians, including 63 children and 36 women, with 1,530 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not break the numbers down into fighters and civilians.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad say at least 20 of their fighters have been killed, while Israel says the number is at least 130.

Some 58,000 Palestinians have fled their homes.

Twelve people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier, have been killed.

During the meeting Netanyahu said the militant group has "a whole infrastructure" of underground tunnels "throughout Gaza" which act as weapons storage, command centers, and firing posts.

In recent days the Israeli military struck the tunnels, which it says are part of an elaborate system it refers to as the "Metro," used by fighters to take cover from air strikes.

The tunnels extend for hundreds of kilometres (miles), with some more than 20 meters (yards) deep, according to an Israeli Air Force official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, in keeping with regulations.

The official said Israel was not trying to destroy all the tunnels, just chokepoints and major junctions.