Israel sent tanks deeper into Gaza today and threatened to intensify its air and ground assault, ignoring international calls to stop the conflict with Hamas militants who fired more rockets into the Jewish state.
Hamas's leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal, said his group would not consider a Gaza ceasefire until Israel ends its 15-day-old military offensive and opens the coastal enclave's border crossings.
"Let Israel pull out first, let the aggression stop first, let the crossings open and then people can look into the issue of calm," said Meshaal, in a televised speech in Damascus.
Israeli forces killed at least 26 people, including eight members of one family in the northern Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said, bringing the Palestinian death toll from the fighting to 843.
Thirteen Israelis have been killed since the offensive began on December 27th, three civilians hit by rocket fire and 10 soldiers.
In Egypt, efforts by President Hosni Mubarak to broker a ceasefire showed little sign of progress and Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on southern Gaza telling residents it was about to step up its offensive.
While Israeli commanders asserted that whole Hamas battalions were being wiped out, the group's leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal, said Israeli soldiers in the enclave had achieved nothing, pointing to the continued rocket fire.
Israel said an air strike near the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip killed Amir Mansi, a senior Hamas commander. Palestinian medical workers said one adult and two children were killed but Mansi's condition was unclear.
Israel denied firing the shell that killed eight members of the Abu Rayya family in Jabalya earlier in the day.
The fighting continued even during a three-hour ceasefire window Israel has observed in recent days to allow humanitarian aid to help sustain the territory's 1.5 million residents.
Israeli actions have drawn denunciations from the Red Cross, UN agencies and Arab and European governments, spurred by a Palestinian civilian death toll in the hundreds.
As Israeli tanks advanced in northern Gaza and aircraft hit targets across the coastal strip, Hamas rockets hit Ashkelon, 20km north of Gaza, wounding three Israelis.
"In the coming period, the Israeli army will continue to attack tunnels, weapons caches, and terrorists with escalating force all over the Gaza Strip," Israeli army leaflets told residents of the Rafah refugee camp near the Egyptian border.
The United Nations, worried about the deepening humanitarian impact of the war, with more than half Gaza's population dependent on UN food assistance, said it hoped to resume full aid distribution after receiving Israeli assurances that its staff would not be harmed. A UN driver was killed on Thursday.
Israel has pressed on with its offensive despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and Egyptian-European efforts at mediation, saying it is intent on stopping Hamas rocket fire.
The group fired about a dozen rockets at Israel today, while a phalanx of Israeli tanks advanced from the north towards the city of Gaza.
Reuters