(January 2, 2009)--Israel has bombed a mosque it claimed was used to store weapons and has destroyed homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip Friday, but under international pressure, the Israeli government has allowed hundreds of Palestinians with foreign passports to leave Gaza.
Many of the evacuees were foreign-born women married to Palestinians and their children.
Spouses who did not hold foreign citizenship were not allowed out.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry says the decision was not related to military plans.
Israel has been building up artillery, armor and infantry on Gaza's border in an indication the week-old air assault could soon expand with a ground incursion, but at the same time, international calls for a cease-fire are growing.
A United Nations official estimates that at least a quarter of the 400 Palestinians killed by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip are civilians and a "significant number" of the dead are women and children.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States and key world allies are pushing hard for a "durable and sustainable" cease-fire in Gaza, but that there is no end in sight to the violence.
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