IDF said the source of the error was either a failure to laser-paint the correct target or that one of the munitions in the strike misfired, Haaretz newspaper reported. The Israeli military is investigating the incident.

The Israeli military targeted Hamas' rocket-launching unit led by Yehiya Rabiah, but apparently hit the house of a neighbor, the newspaper noted. Rabiah seems to have survived the attack despite earlier claims that he was killed.

A Palestinian man carries the dead body of a child from the al-Dalou family out from the rubble after an Israeli missile struck a family home killing at least seven members of the same family in Gaza City on November 18, 2012. (AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams)

Pictures from the site of the attack show the bodies of dead children taken from the ruble of their home. Nine members of the Al-Dalou family, all of them women and children were killed, two other people were also among the dead.

The latest deaths add to the growing toll of Gazan children killed in Israeli air strikes. So far at least 75 people have been killed in the attacks, 13 of them are childen.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that sooner or later, Israel would be held accountable for the “massacre.”

The child death toll is expected to rise unless the two sides enter negotiations soon. However the Israelis are maintaining their belligerent stance.

“The Israeli military is prepared to significantly expand the operation. The soldiers are ready for any activity that could take place…the Israel Defense Forces have attacked more than 1,000 terror targets in the Gaza Strip and it continues operations at this very moment,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a weekly cabinet meeting.

A Palestinian rescue worker carries the body of a child from the al-Dalou family into the hospital in Gaza City on November 18, 2012. (AFP Photo / Mohammed Abed)

Palestinians gather around a destroyed home of the al-Dallu family following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, on November 18, 2012. (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)

A Palestinian man carries the dead body of a child from the al-Dallu family out from the rubble after an Israeli missile struck a family home killing at least seven members of the same family in Gaza City on November 18, 2012. (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)

Palestinian men carry the dead bodies of children from the al-Dallu family out from the rubble after an Israeli missile struck a family home killing at least seven members of the same family in Gaza City on November 18, 2012. (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)

A Palestinian man carries the dead body of a child from the al-Dallu family out from the rubble after an Israeli missile struck a family home killing at least seven members of the same family in Gaza City on November 18, 2012. (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)