Israeli Ground Forces Move Into Gaza's Second City

Israeli troops and tanks moved into Gaza's second largest city, Khan Younis, for the first time today under intensive artillery strikes as the military pledged to press on with its attack.

The heaviest fighting has been in northern Gaza, with witnesses reporting wave after wave of bombing strikes across the north of the territory accompanied by gunfire from helicopters and artillery from land and sea. Thousands of Palestinians have been ordered to leave their homes or forced to flee the fighting.

Artillery fired from naval ships in the Mediterranean killed 10 Palestinians this morning in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the Gaza strip, according to Palestinian medical workers. In Shajaiyeh, east of Gaza City, Israeli troops seized control of three apartment blocks and set up gun positions on the rooftops. Residents were locked in their homes and soldiers confiscated their mobile phones, neighbors said.

Late last night three Israeli soldiers were killed and 24 were wounded, four seriously, when they were accidentally hit by an Israeli tank shell. They were the most serious casualties suffered by Israeli forces since they began their ground offensive on Saturday night, and came when the tank mistakenly fired on a building where the soldiers had taken positions.

There was heavy artillery fire to cover the evacuation of the injured, who included the commander of the Golani infantry brigade, one of Israel's key fighting forces.

Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak, said his country's troops had not finished their operation despite mounting Palestinian casualties and growing international calls for a ceasefire.

"Hamas has so far sustained a very heavy blow from us, but we have yet to achieve our objective and therefore the operation continues," Barak said.

The Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, said the offensive was intended to change permanently the shape of Israel's conflict with Hamas. "When Israel is targeted, Israel is going to retaliate," she said. Israel has rejected calls for a ceasefire.

The military said it had bombed more smuggling tunnels across the border with Egypt in the south and hit more than 40 other sites across Gaza including buildings storing weapons and rocket launching areas.

As Israeli troops and tanks pressed deeper into Gaza, the toll of civilian casualties rose rapidly. The UN said at least 94 Palestinians had been killed since the ground offensive began on Saturday night. In one incident yesterday a house in Zeitoun, south-east of Gaza City, was hit by tank shells killing at least nine people, including at least four children. In the Shamali district, north of the city, an Israeli bomb destroyed a three-story house killing a family of seven, including four children.

In total, at least 550 Palestinians have died since Israel's operation began, with more than 2,500 injured. Hospitals have been overwhelmed; morgues were crowded with bodies, and injured patients had to be treated in hallways. On the Israeli side eight people, including five soldiers, have died and about 60, mostly soldiers, have been hurt.

The Israeli military said it had killed 130 "Hamas terror operatives" in the past two days, although there was no way to confirm that figure. At least 80 Palestinians have been detained, interrogated and taken into Israel.

In Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, the most senior leader of Hamas in the strip and a hardliner in the movement, appeared on the party's al-Aqsa television station and gave a defiant speech threatening attacks not only in Gaza but elsewhere.

"The Zionists have legitimized the killing of their children by killing our children. They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people," Zahar said. He urged Hamas fighters to "crush your enemy".

Another Hamas figure, a recognised military spokesman called Abu Ubaida, said thousands of Hamas fighters were waiting in Gaza to take on the Israeli military and said rocket attacks would increase.

More than 40 were fired into southern Israel yesterday, including one that landed in an empty kindergarten, which has been closed since the conflict began, like all schools near the Gaza border. Israeli police said a total of 520 rockets had been fired in the past 11 days of fighting.

Israeli troops are now deployed in and around the major urban areas of Gaza, particularly in the north, including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya. They have ordered residents in many areas to leave their homes with leaflets, telephone calls and radio announcements, forcing at least 15,000 Palestinians to flee to safety elsewhere. At least 5,000 are staying in 11 different UN schools and shelters.

The UN said more than 1 million Gazans were still without electricity or water and that it was increasingly difficult for staff to distribute aid or reach the injured. It said more industrial diesel was needed to reopen the strip's sole power plant, which has been shut for a week. Ten transformers have been damaged in the fighting.

More wheat grain is needed for food handouts and the UN said Karni, the main commercial crossing, should be reopened to allow it in. Four ambulances and three mobile clinics were destroyed when bombs hit the headquarters of the Union of Health Care Committees in Gaza City.

John Holmes, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator, said Gaza represented an "increasingly alarming" humanitarian crisis and said the territory was running low on clean water, power, food, medicine and other supplies since Israel began its offensive. Israeli leaders claim there is no humanitarian crisis.