Israeli troops and tanks slice deeper into Gaza

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Thousands of Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships pushed deeper into Gaza Sunday, fighting militants at close range and surrounding the coastal territory’s largest city in the first full day of an overwhelming ground offensive.

Israel said it has inflicted a heavy blow against Hamas as it expands a weeklong offensive meant to stop rocket fire on southern Israel. But spiraling civilian casualties fueled an intensifying international outcry.

Israel’s ground forces moved in after nightfall Saturday following hours of intense, fiery artillery shelling to clear the way, and Hamas warned that its fighters would turn Gaza into an Israeli graveyard.

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On Sunday, Israeli soldiers continued to fight primarily in open areas in the launching zones used by Gaza’s militants to send rockets raining down on Israeli cities. As the troops in three brigade-size formations moved in, residents of those Israeli cities began emerging from bomb shelters in hopes that the rocket fire would taper off.

Backing up the troops, mobile artillery units fired shells that exploded in heavy veils of white smoke over Gaza’s urban skyline. Tanks pushed south of Gaza City as deep as the abandoned Israeli settlement of Netzarim, which Israel left along with other Israeli communities when it pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

That effectively cut off Gaza City, the territory’s largest population center with some 400,000 residents, from the rest of Gaza to the south.

Israel’s military chief said Hamas fighters were trying to draw soldiers deeper into Gaza’s sprawling, densely packed urban areas, where the military said Hamas was seeking protection behind civilians.

Israeli forces have not yet entered urban areas, said Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu, the chief army spokesman. He warned, however, that the operation was not a “school trip” and would be long and demanding.

The ground invasion presents Israel with the risk of being sucked into intense urban combat, with house-to-house fighting, sniper fire and booby-traps. Hamas is believed to have some 20,000 gunmen and has had time to prepare.

To guard against hidden explosives, Israel’s ground forces moved through fields and orchards with bomb-sniffing dogs.

Gaza officials said at least 31 civilians were killed in the onslaught, which also continued from the air.

At one hospital, in the northern village of Beit Lahiya, medics carrying three injured children in their arms rushed them to treatment. One of the children had a blood-soaked bandage wrapped around his head and covering his eyes.

An Israeli airstrike close to Gaza City’s main market showered the area with shrapnel, killing three children, all of them siblings, medics said. Militants were using empty land next to the Firas market to fire rockets.

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