GAZA CITY: Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip early Sunday, cutting the coastal territory into two and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas gained momentum. At least 24 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed.
Thousands of soldiers in three brigade-size formations pushed into Gaza after nightfall Saturday, beginning a long-awaited ground offensive after a week of intense aerial bombardment. Black smoke billowed over Gaza City at first light as bursts of machine gun fire rang out.
TV footage showed Israeli troops with night-vision goggles and camouflage face paint marching in single file. Artillery barrages preceded their advance, and they moved through fields and orchards following bomb-sniffing dogs ensuring their routes had not been booby-trapped.
The military said troops killed or wounded dozens of fighters, but Palestinian medical teams in Gaza, unable to move because of the fighting, could not provide accurate casualty figures.
Hamas said only four fighters had been killed. Gaza health officials said around 20 civilians had also died in air strikes and shelling, including a 12-year-old girl, five members of the same family, and another eight civilians killed by a tank shell in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.
The new deaths brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip since Saturday to more than 500. Palestinian and UN officials say at least 100 civilians are among the dead.
The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot said the army s guiding principle is to use overwhelming force and do everything to protect its soldiers, even if that results in civilian casualties.
Army ambulances were seen bringing Israeli wounded to a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. The military reported 30 Israeli troops were wounded, two seriously, in the opening hours of the offensive.
In his first public comments on the operation, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet on Sunday that he was well aware of the risks of the operation, but that Israel could not allow its civilians to continue to be targeted by rockets from Gaza.
“This morning I can look every one you in the eyes and say the government did everything before deciding to go ahead with the operation. This operation was unavoidable, he said.
A senior military officer said Hamas was well-prepared for the Israeli incursion into Gaza, a densely populated territory of 1.4 million where insurgents operate and easily hide in the crowded urban landscape. He said the operation was “not a rapid one that would end in hours or a few days.
Still, he said, “We have no intention of staying in the Gaza Strip for the long term. He spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with army regulations.
Israel says the objective is to restore quiet to Israel’s south, not to topple Hamas or reoccupy Gaza.
Hamas threatened to turn Gaza into a “graveyard for Israeli forces.
“You entered like rats, Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told Israeli soldiers in a statement on Hamas’ Al Aqsa TV. “Gaza will be a graveyard for you, God willing, he said.
The ground operation is the second phase in an offensive that began as a weeklong aerial onslaught aimed at halting Hamas rocket fire that has reached deeper and deeper into Israel, threatening major cities and one-eighth of Israel’s population.
Rocket fire has persisted, however, and several rockets fell in Israel on Sunday morning. In much of southern Israel school has been canceled and life has been largely paralyzed.
While the air offensive presented little risk for Israel’s army, sending in ground troops is a much more dangerous proposition. Hamas is believed to have some 20,000 gunmen and has had time to prepare, and Israeli leaders had resisted a ground invasion for months, fearing heavy casualties.
Israel also has called up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers, which defense officials said could enable a far broader ground offensive as the operation’s third phase. The troops could also be used in the event Palestinian insurgents in the West Bank or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon decide to launch attacks. Hezbollah opened a war against Israel in 2006 when it was in the midst of a large operation in Gaza.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the military’s preparations are classified.
An armored force south of Gaza City penetrated as deep as the abandoned settlement of Netzarim, which Israel left along with other Israeli communities when it pulled out of Gaza in 2005, both military officials and Palestinian witnesses said.
That move effectively cut off Gaza City, the territory’s largest population center with some 400,000 residents, from the rest of Gaza to the south.
The offensive focused on northern Gaza, where most of the rockets are fired into Israel, but at least one incursion was reported in the southern part of the strip. Hamas uses smuggling tunnels along the southern border with Egypt to bring in weapons.
Ground forces had not entered major Gaza towns and cities by early Sunday morning, instead fighting in rural communities and open areas insurgents often use to launch rockets and mortar rounds. Insurgents also fire from heavily populated neighborhoods.
Beit Lahiya, a town in northern Gaza, was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting. In one incident, an artillery shell killed eight civilians as they were fleeing their homes to seek refuge at a nearby school, according to paramedics and Dr. Said Judeh, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in town. The home of a farmer in the Beit Lahiya area was hit twice by artillery, killing a total of five members of one family, Judeh said.
An air strike hit an ambulance sent by another local hospital, and three medics were reported in critical condition, officials said.
Residents of the small northern Gaza community of Al-Attatra said soldiers moved from house to house by blowing holes through walls. Most of the houses were unoccupied, their residents already having fled.
Hamas insurgents fired mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades. Field commanders communicated over walkie talkies, updating gunmen on the location of Israeli forces. Commanders told gunmen in the streets not to gather in groups and not to use cell phones.
Israel launched the air campaign against Gaza on Dec. 27 with the aim of halting incessant rocket fire on its south. The operation appears to have slowed, but not halted the rocket fire. Israeli police said 13 rockets landed Sunday. One person was lightly wounded.
Hundreds of rockets have hit Israel so far, and four Israelis have been killed. The relatively low number of Israeli casualties is largely due to warning sirens that give residents notice of incoming missiles and allow them to take cover.
The ballooning death toll in Gaza has aroused mounting world outrage, as evidenced by protests that drew tens of thousands of demonstrators in European capitals on Saturday.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon conveyed his “extreme concern and disappointment to Olmert and called for an “immediate end to the operation, according to a UN statement Sunday.
“He is convinced and alarmed that this escalation will inevitably increase the already heavy suffering of the affected civilian populations, the statement said.
Denunciations also came from the French government, which unsuccessfully proposed a two-day truce earlier this week, and from Egypt, which brokered the six-month truce whose breakdown preceded the Israeli offensive.
But the US put the blame squarely on Hamas. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said US officials have been in regular contact with the Israelis as well as officials from countries in the region and Europe.
At an emergency consultation of the UN Security Council on Saturday night, the US blocked approval of a statement demanded by Arab countries calling for an immediate cease-fire and expressing serious concern at the escalation of violence.
Hamas began to emerge as Gaza’s main power broker when it won Palestinian parliamentary elections three years ago. It h
as ruled the impoverished territory since seizing control from forces loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007.
