Israel: 'We try to minimise civilian casualties in Gaza'

Israel's military was trying to minimise civilian casualties in Gaza, but Hamas was effectively using Palestinian civilians as human shields, the Israeli Defence Forces spokesperson has said.

"Hamas, purposely embeds its military infrastructure within the civilian population creating an almost impossible situation where they are using Palestinian civilians as their human shields while they fire rockets at our civilians," Lt Col Jonathan Conricus told BBC World News on Thursday.

Israeli forces were "careful and mindful" of civilian casualties in Gaza "and we are going out of our way to minimise them," he added.

Israel increased its attacks on Gaza and Palestinian militants continued to fire rockets into Israel on Friday.

Some 119 people have been killed in Gaza and eight have died in Israel since the fighting began five days ago.