President Obama has announced his full support for Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip even as dozens of Palestinians, including many civilians, continue to be killed by U.S.-supplied weaponry. At least 37 people have been killed in Gaza since Sunday, including at least 20 civilians. In the deadliest attack to date, 12 civilians, most of them members of the same family, died on Sunday when an Israeli warplane bombed their home in Gaza City. The victims included four small children and five women, one of them the children’s mother. Overall, at least 95 Palestinians have been killed — half of them believed to be civilians — since Israel began its assault last week. The number of Palestinians wounded nearly doubled on Sunday to 660 as Israel carried out its deadliest day of bombings to date. But as the Israeli attack escalated, President Obama gave his full backing while on a visit to Thailand.

President Obama: “There’s no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders. So we are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself from missiles landing on people’s homes and workplaces and potentially killing civilians.”

The Palestinian death toll is believed to include at least 20 children, including seven killed on Sunday. Speaking at a hospital in Gaza, a young Palestinian child issued a plea to the world for help.

Nawal Azard: “To the world and [its] people: Why should we be killed, and why shouldn’t we have a normal childhood? What did we do to face all this?”