Palestinians react in front of a mosque which was hit in an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City on July 29. Israel's military pounded targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country needed to be prepared for a long conflict in the Palestinian enclave, squashing any hopes of a swift end to 22 days of fighting. Israel launched its Gaza offensive on July 8, saying its aim was to halt rocket attacks by Hamas and its allies. It later ordered a land invasion to find and destroy the warren of Hamas tunnels that crisscrosses the border area. Some 1,087 Gazans, most of them civilians, have died in the 22-day-old conflagration. Israel has lost 48 soldiers and another three civilians have been killed by Palestinian shelling. Reuters/Suhaib Salem