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Israel threatened on Monday to beat Gaza with "iron hand" while the Hamas Islamist group said to be close to "victory" in a conflict that has left over 900 dead in Palestinian territory since the beginning of the Israeli offensive.

Meanwhile, 25 more Palestinians were killed by attacks by Israeli forces fighting against Hamas activists in the suburbs of Gaza City, according to medical sources and witnesses.

There were also clashes in northern Gaza.

Israeli tanks moved about one hundred meters in the neighborhoods of Ajline, and Zeitun Tuffah, facing Palestinian fighters in the three axes, according to witnesses.


"We want to finish the operation when two conditions are met: to end the firing of rockets and end the rearmament of Hamas," said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, on a visit to the south goal of the firing of rockets .

"Anything else will find the iron hand of the Israeli people, who do not want to tolerate the (rocket) Qassam," he added.


For its part, the prime minister's Islamist government in Gaza said Hamas in a televised message "is close to victory against the Israeli army.

"We are close to victory. The pure blood was not spilled in vain, because God will take us through to victory," said Haniyeh, in a speech broadcast on television on Monday of Hamas.


On the other hand had a Hamas spokesman repeated the government in Gaza rejected the deployment of an international force in Palestinian territory in a possible ceasefire agreement, to consider this option as "an occupation force."

Israel says that through the offensive has dealt a severe blow to Hamas by killing more than 550 of its fighters and injuring thousands more.


"The army is doing in 16 days what other countries fighting terrorism have not been able to do in 16 years," said the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, on a visit to a military base.

According to the head of emergency services in Gaza, Muawiya Hasanein, there are already 917 Palestinians have been killed during the Israeli offensive, of which 277 are children, 97 women and 92 elderly.


He added that more than 4,100 Palestinians were wounded.

Sunday night, Israeli media announced that the army began sending reinforcements of reservists to support regular troops in the Gaza Strip, a move interpreted as a prelude to the launch of "third phase" of the offensive, with assaults in central cities and refugee camps.


According to the media, the government hesitated until now to authorize this "third phase", while increasing calls for a ceasefire, including the Council of the UN Security, which demanded a ceasefire in a resolution adopted on Thursday.

At the diplomatic level, Israel postponed a day visit to Cairo by a senior official in the Israeli Defense Ministry, Amos Gilad, to discuss a possible cease-fire in Gaza, reported the ministry.


Egypt, which developed in close coordination with a French initiative for a ceasefire, talks on Sunday with a delegation of Hamas (the Arabic acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement). The organization said it rejected "points" of that plan.

According to Israeli public radio, the postponement of the visit was decided by Amos Gilad, the Israeli authorities to increase the military pressure on Hamas, while the army announced having dealt heavy blows to the armed wing of the Islamist movement.

The outgoing U.S. president George W. Bush blamed Hamas. "I am in favor of a lasting ceasefire, and the definition of sustainable cease-fire that Hamas stop launching rockets into Israel," he said Monday in his last press conference.

Israel claimed that its offensive was aimed at ending the firing of rockets from Gaza, but Palestinians have launched more than 660 of these projectiles at southern Israel since December 27, killing four people.

Meanwhile, the Czech presidency of the European Union (EU) plans to organize a donor conference to meet the humanitarian needs of the population of Gaza, announced on Monday the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, without specifying date or place.