JERUSALEM -
Thousands of Israeli soldiers supported by helicopter gunships and columns of tanks bisected the Gaza Strip yesterday, isolating its largest city amid fierce clashes on multiple fronts with militant fighters.
At least 35 Palestinians died in confrontations with Israeli troops and from missile strikes and artillery barrages, according to local medical sources. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed since Dec. 27, when Israel began its current campaign against Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza. At least 2,000 Palestinians have been wounded.
In the face of mounting international calls for a truce, including harsh criticism from the head of the United Nations, Israeli leaders pledged to continue their campaign to end the threat of rocket fire by Gaza militants at southern Israeli cities and towns.
"This operation was unavoidable," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet yesterday.
Olmert said the campaign, which started with a week of punishing airstrikes and escalated to a land incursion Saturday evening, was needed to "change the security reality in the south."
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, however, continued firing rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel. At least 40 rockets were launched yesterday, causing widespread panic but only minor injuries, according to the Israeli army.
Israeli officials say that about 900,000 of their citizens are within range of the rockets and live in fear of sudden attack.
Throughout the Gaza Strip, most of the enclave's 1.5 million Palestinian residents huddled indoors for safety, most venturing out only to line up for dwindling supplies of bread and household goods.
Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of Gaza City's main Shifa Hospital said more than half the day's known 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, Hassanain said, but it was too risky for ambulances and rescue crews to approach the conflict zone.
One ambulance, funded by the international aid organization Oxfam, was struck by an Israeli shell while trying to evacuate injured from the front-line community of Beit Lahiya, the organization said. The blast killed one paramedic; a second paramedic lost his foot.
