Artillery shells explode above Gaza City yesterday as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border.

GAZA — Israeli troops and tanks split the Gaza Strip and ringed its main city yesterday in an offensive against Hamas that has killed 500 Palestinians, including a growing number of civilians. Israeli tanks poured shells and machinegun-fire and war planes struck as Hamas fighters fought back with mortars and rockets. Hamas kept up rocket attacks against southern Israel, defying efforts by the region’s most powerful army to ‘remove the threat of cross-border salvoes.’ At least 42 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed yesterday as Israeli shells slammed into houses and Gaza’s main shopping district, medical sources said.

Among the Palestinian casualties were five civilians killed and 40 wounded when tank shells slammed into Gaza City’s main shopping area. Two children were dismembered by another blast from a tank, medical workers said. A foreign Red Crescent doctor said: “Civilians are being killed ... shells are severing people’s legs, shrapnel is going into people’s bodies and into people’s homes, a lot of people are being cut down. Everyone is terrified.” The head of emergency services in the Gaza Strip told Al Jazeera television that three Palestinian rescue workers were killed by Israeli fire yesterday, raising to seven the number of medical staff who have died in nine days of bloodshed.

The Saturday night invasion of the Gaza Strip followed a week of Israeli bombardments from land, sea and air. The total Palestinian death toll tallied by Gaza medical officials in Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead” rose to 512. A UN agency said at least a quarter of the dead were civilians. A Palestinian human rights group put the figure at 40 per cent. One Israeli soldier was killed and 32 wounded in the ground offensive, Israel said. Witnesses said the Israeli thrust cut the territory in half from the border fence to the Mediterranean. Troops and armour had taken up positions around Gaza City.

Yesterday morning saw gun battles between Hamas fighters and Israeli soldiers but later the action was mostly Israeli tank shelling and Hamas rocket and mortar-fire. The plight of Gaza residents was desperate. People have taken shelter in their homes for days and humanitarian agencies said water, food and medical supplies were running short. The assault provoked cries of alarm worldwide, but Israel won heavyweight US backing and moves for an immediate ceasefire foundered at the United Nations. A Russian presidential envoy and an EU ministerial mission headed to the Middle East to try to bring new impetus to the search for a ceasefire.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown echoed European concerns when he said Israel’s ground offensive was a “very dangerous moment” in the conflict, and he called for increased efforts to rapidly secure a halt in the fighting. The assault was condemned across the Middle East, with Egypt saying the UN Security Council’s silence on Israel’s campaign of air strikes had effectively given Israel “a green light” for the ground assault. Asian nations expressed alarm, too, with Pakistan and China calling for an immediate end to the ground operation.

But the Security Council failed even to agree on a statement calling for a ceasefire after the United States argued that a return to the situation that existed before Israel’s ground invasion was unacceptable. Israeli government officials said Israel had set several goals, including weakening Hamas by killing its fighters and destroying its rocket arsenal and establishing deterrence so the group would think twice before firing cross-border salvoes. In addition, the officials said, Israel hoped to win international backing for new security arrangements along the Egyptian-Gaza border to prevent Hamas from rearming through tunnels, which have been bombed in the current campaign.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   — Agencies