Conflict halt

Ahead of a trip to the region to push for a truce, Ban Ki-moon said too many people had died and there had been too much civilian suffering.

Nearly 30 rockets or mortars were fired on Israel from Gaza on Monday.

Early on Tuesday, the 18th day of the conflict, Israeli troops advanced in the southern and eastern suburbs of Gaza City, backed by artillery and helicopters.

The western areas of the city came under shellfire from Israeli gunboats.

The Israeli military has denied a Hamas claim that it had destroyed two Israeli tanks.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Palestinian militants will keep on feeling Israel's "iron fist" as long as Hamas fires rockets at Israel.

But a senior Hamas leader, Ismail Haniya, said the group was "approaching victory".

"After 17 days of this foolish war, Gaza has not been broken and Gaza will not collapse," he said in a televised address from a secret location in Gaza.
Both Hamas and Israel rejected last week's UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Palestinian medical sources say 910 people have been killed in Gaza so far, of whom 292 were children and 75 were women. Israeli officials say 13 Israelis, including three civilians, have been killed.

On Monday, casualty reports from Palestinian medics ranged from nine to 26 dead, while Israel said five of its soldiers had been injured, one of them seriously.

Israel is preventing international journalists from entering Gaza, making it impossible to independently confirm casualty figures.

fight on in Gaza

Israel and Hamas vowed to fight on on Sunday (January 11), ignoring international calls to stop the Gaza conflict which entered a 16th day with heavy clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.

Hamas's leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal, said his Islamist group would not consider a truce until Israel ended its military offensive and lifted a blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Israel sent tanks deeper into the coastal enclave and threatened to intensify its air and ground assaults against militants who fired more rockets into the Jewish state. Palestinian witnesses reported heavy fighting east of the city of Gaza where Hamas militants fired anti-tank missiles and mortar bombs at advancing Israeli forces who responded with tank shells and air strikes.

An Israeli air strike targeting a car on a coastal road killed two militants, medical workers said.

Israeli artillery shelling of two villages in the southern Gaza Strip killed a woman and set 15 houses on fire, medical workers and witnesses said. Some 50 people suffered from burns and gas inhalation, they said.

Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using white-phosphorus munitions and warned of undue suffering to Palestinian civilians through severe burns. The Israeli military said it uses only weapons permitted under international law. It has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

A total of 846 Palestinians and thirteen Israelis --- three civilians killed by rocket fire and 10 soldiers --- have been killed since the offensive began on December 27.
While Israeli commanders said whole Hamas battalions were being wiped out, Meshaal said Israeli forces had achieved nothing and pointed to the continued rocket fire.

Israeli actions have drawn denunciations from the Red Cross, UN agencies and Arab and European governments, spurred by the Palestinian civilian death toll in the hundreds.

Israel has pressed on with its offensive despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and Egyptian-European efforts at mediation, saying it is intent on stopping Hamas rocket fire.

The group fired about a dozen rockets at Israel on Saturday, while a phalanx of Israeli tanks advanced from the north towards the city of Gaza. Israel is demanding a complete halt to Hamas rocket fire, plus regional and international guarantees to stop the group rearming via smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt.

Hamas wants any ceasefire deal to include the ending of Israel's crippling economic blockade of the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the territory, from which the Jewish state withdrew in 2005 after a 38-year occupation.

Nearly 300 killed in Gaza

Israeli jets pounded Hamas targets in Gaza for a third day Monday, continuing an operation that Palestinian security sources said has killed more than 270 people.Hamas militants launched more rockets into Israel on Sunday. Israel has said its airstrikes are a necessary self-defense measure after repeated rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told on Sunday that the airstrikes will continue “until we have a change on the ground” and that Israel has not ruled out a ground war in Gaza.

“Unfortunately, in this kind of attack, there are some civilian casualties. But Israel took all the necessary actions to warn the civilians before the attacks to leave the places they know that Hamas stays.”Israeli ground troops and tanks were deployed around Gaza on Sunday. There is no indication of a ground operation inside Gaza, but a senior military official said troops around Gaza will “be activated if needed.”