In Gaza, at least 35 Palestinians killed in Israeli ground attack

Reporting from Gaza City and Jerusalem — Israeli soldiers and tank columns bisected the Gaza Strip today, isolating Gaza City, its urban center, amid fierce clashes on multiple fronts with militant fighters.

At least 35 Palestinians died in confrontations with Israeli troops and from ongoing missile strikes and artillery barrages, according to local medical sources. The Palestinian death toll has reached more than 500, with at least 2,000 wounded, since Dec. 27, when Israel began its current campaign against Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza.

In the face of mounting international calls for a cease-fire, including harsh criticism from the head of the United Nations, Israeli leaders pledged to continue their campaign to end the threat of rocket launches by Gazan militants at southern Israeli cities and towns.

"This operation was unavoidable," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet today.

Olmert said the campaign, which started with a week of punishing airstrikes and escalated to a land incursion Saturday evening was necessary to "change the security reality in the south."

Despite a massive Israeli military advantage, Gazan militant groups managed to continue firing rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel. At least 40 rockets were launched today, causing widespread panic but only minor injuries, according to the Israeli army.

The homemade rockets are wildly inaccurate and rarely cause serious casualties; three Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket fire since the start of hostilities. But Israeli officials say that about 900,000 of their citizens are within range of the rocket fire and live in fear of sudden attack.

Throughout the Gaza Strip, the enclave's 1.5-million Palestinian residents for the most part huddled indoors for safety, venturing out only to line up for dwindling supplies of bread and household goods.

Dr. Moawiya Hassanein of Gaza City's main Shifa Hospital said more than half the day's casualties were civilians, including a mother and her four children killed by an Israeli tank shell east of Gaza City. The militant casualty count was probably much higher, Hassanein said, but it was too risky for ambulances and rescue crews to approach the front lines of the conflict.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon conveyed his "extreme concern and disappointment" in a phone call to Olmert and called for an immediate end to the operation, according to a U.N. statement today.

At an emergency consultation of the U.N. Security Council on Saturday night, the U.S. blocked approval of a statement demanded by Arab countries that would have called for an immediate cease-fire. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, echoing Israeli concerns, said a cease-fire needed to be "durable, sustainable and not time-limited."
LATimes