News and Articles

Israeli tanks and infantry entered on Saturday night in the Gaza Strip and reported heavy artillery duels in an expansion of the Israeli offensive began a week ago against the militia of Hamas, the organization that controls Gaza.

Local television stations broadcast images of soldiers marching into Gaza after sundown. Fighting could be heard after the troops crossed the border. The Israelis were also backed by helicopter gunships.


The authorities of the Israeli Defense Ministry had said previously that about 10,000 troops had been concentrated along the border in recent days.

Israeli officials said that heavy artillery fire in the early hours of Saturday night was meant to make and detonate explosive devices Hamas had placed mines along the border, before entering soldiers.


It was initially unaware of how deeply enter the Gaza Strip Israeli soldiers.

Israel's offensive against Hamas began a week ago, with numerous airstrikes on Hamas targets, including police headquarters, fire stations, mosques, universities, and the parliament.


The intent was to curb Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli border towns, but Hamas continued firing rockets into Israel.

Israel initially stopped a ground offensive, apparently for fear of casualties among Israeli soldiers, and concerns remain mired in Gaza, territory it abandoned in 2005 after several years of resistance by the Palestinians.


The leaders of Hamas warned that Israeli troops would be a violent welcome. They also threatened to resume suicide attacks in Israel.

According to witnesses, while Israeli tanks and infantry entered Gaza on Saturday evening, they were very close to the border. The heavy artillery fire was directed to the east of the overcrowded Gaza City, in places where, according to Israeli authorities, were deployed fighters from Hamas.


In the first week of air strikes, more than 460 Palestinians were killed and over 2,000 wounded. A UN agency said that between 10% and 25% of the Palestinian casualties were civilians.

Because it is densely populated Gaza, an urban war could greatly increase the casualties.


Hours earlier, Israel launched a bombing against a mosque in the Gaza Strip left 10 people dead and dozens wounded, Palestinian medical sources reported.

Earlier, Israeli jets struck more than two dozen positions of Hamas on Saturday, attacking weapons storage sites, training centers and the homes of several executives at the beginning of the second week of its offensive against the militia leaders in the region.


Was not immediately clear whether those killed in the mosque there Hamas militiamen. The mosque attack was named after the founder of an extremist group that was killed by Israeli forces in 2004.

The medical sources added that more than 30 people were injured in the bombing on Saturday in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. At least seven are in critical condition.

Most of the air strikes against the last hours were empty and abandoned buildings, which indicated that Israel appeared to be losing whites.

Meanwhile, shares of international cease-fire are also gaining momentum.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will visit the region next week and his colleague George W. Bush and the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, both spoke in favor of a truce supervised by the international community.

Israel launched the offensive on December 27 in response to the increasing number of rocket attacks launched by Hamas militia in Gaza.