Weeping relatives gathered outside the homes. Thousands, including relatives of the dead, massed outside Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, where some of the bodies were brought, along with. white shrouds for burial.

Hospital director Mahmoud Al-Asali said ambulances carried three and four victims at a time, in some cases heaping bodies over the wounded in their rush to get to the hospital.

"I have worked here as director for five years, and this is the most terrible scene I've ever seen," Al-Asali said.

Mashaal said that his group's militants will answer the deaths with "deeds, not words."

"The truce (with Israel) ended at the end of 2005," Mashaal told a news conference in the Syrian capital. "The armed struggle is free to resume, and the resistance is dictated by local circumstances."

The truce expired on Dec. 31, but it had continued to be honored, with some infractions.

Hamas' military wing called on Muslims around the world to target "the American enemy."

"America is offering political, financial and logistic cover for the Zionist occupation crimes, and it is responsible for the Beit Hanoun massacre. Therefore, the people and the nation all over the globe are required to teach the American enemy tough lessons," Hamas said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.

Hamas has historically directed its violence against Israeli targets, carrying out dozens of suicide attacks over the past decade and killing dozens of Israelis, but not in recent years.

Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led Palestinian government, said the group had no intention of attacking American targets.

The killing of Palestinian civilians in the past has often preceded a sharp escalation of violence. A series of deadly incidents last summer, including a June 9 explosion on a Gaza beach that killed eight civilians, was followed by the capture of an Israeli soldier and an ensuing Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Spontaneous demonstrations erupted across Gaza after Wednesday's attack.

In the town of Beit Lahiya, thousands called for revenge and chanted, "Death to Israel! Death to America!"

Black smoke billowed into the skies over Beit Lahiya and neighboring Jebaliaya as angry residents burned tires in protest.

Witnesses said dozens of schoolchildren hurled stones and bottles at the empty EU mission in Gaza City, and that Palestinian security officials were trying to prevent them from storming the building.

Haniyeh urged the U.N. Security Council to discuss the shelling incident.

Abbas accused Israel of trying to destroy peace, not promote it.

"This is no doubt a terrible, despicable crime that Israel has committed against our people," he told Palestine TV. "We tell the Israelis, you are not seeking peace at all, but are destroying all chances for peace. You must therefore bear all the consequences of these crimes."

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Israel "has no intention of harming innocent people," but "to our great regret, in the course of the fighting, regrettable things sometimes happen, such as the incident this morning."

The bloodshed in Beit Hanoun followed a weeklong Israeli takeover of the town in pursuit of militants who launch rockets at southern Israel. More than 50 Palestinians, most of them militants, were killed in that operation and in clashes after the Israeli troops withdrew early Tuesday.

"The Israeli operation throughout the Gaza Strip will continue as long as Qassam rockets land in Israel, as long as the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip continues and as long as the Hamas government chooses for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to continuously provoke Israel," spokewoman Miri Eisin said.

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