OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 7 March — Israel used tanks, warplanes, helicopter gunships and gunboats in day-and-night attacks against Palestinians yesterday. At the end of the day 10 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers lay dead. The deadly attacks on civilians and fighters alike drew criticism from the United Nations and Israel’s best friend, the United States.

“If you declare war on the Palestinians and think you can solve the problem by seeing how many Palestinians can be killed — I don’t know that leads us anywhere,” US Secretary of State Colin Powell told the US Congress. “Prime Minister (Ariel) Sharon has to take a hard look at his policies to see whether they will work.”

Israeli forces hit security targets or buildings used by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement in Gaza City, in Rafah in southern Gaza, in the West Bank city of Hebron and in nearby Haloul and Dahariya.

Palestinian officials said seven Palestinians were killed and 14 wounded. Three Palestinians were killed elsewhere. The Israeli Army said one soldier was killed and three wounded in an ambush by Palestinians, and an army officer was killed near the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza.

The military wing of Hamas said one of its members, Abdel-Rahman Ghazal, died in a blast at his home in Gaza City and accused Israel of killing him.

Palestinian General Intelligence chief Amin Al-Hindi, who was driving up to the compound when the missile hit, accused Israel of trying to kill a dozen senior security officials who were about to hold a meeting in the building.

“It seems the Israelis had received information about the meeting somehow,” Hindi said. “It is part of their continuous attempts to liquidate Palestinian leaders,” he said.

“It will be a continuous offensive campaign...when the other side understands it cannot achieve anything by using terror it will be easier to start negotiations,” Sharon said in televised comments which echoed his pledge this week to “beat the Palestinians until they beg for a cease-fire”.

That pledge, made following a wave of Palestinian attacks to avenge Israeli killings in raids of West Bank refugee camps, has increased international concern that the 17-month-old conflict is spinning out of control.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said violence had got “completely out of hand” and urged both sides’ leaders to end it or “history will judge them harshly”.