Israeli forces surround Gaza city

Israeli troops and tanks have split the Gaza Strip and encircled its main city today in their ongoing offensive against Hamas…

Israeli troops and tanks have split the Gaza Strip and encircled its main city today in their ongoing offensive against Hamas militants.

Israeli tanks poured shells and machinegun-fire into suspected militant positions and war planes struck from the skies as Hamas fighters fought back with mortars and rockets.

Hamas rocket salvoes also hit southern Israel, strengthening Israel's resolve to stamp out the threat which the Jewish state says made its offensive necessary.

There are reports that an Israeli air strike killed five Palestinians outside a mosque in the northern Gaza Strip this afternoon. Medical officials said all five were civilians.

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Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians in the Gaza Strip as "human shields", saying the Islamist group has been firing rockets at Israeli towns from densely populated areas and storing weapons in homes and mosques.

The Saturday night invasion of Hamas-ruled Gaza followed a week of Israeli bombardments from land, sea and air -- the most serious fighting in decades in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

At least 34 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed this afternoon as Israeli shells dropped on houses and Gaza's main shopping district, medical sources said. That brought the death toll to more than 500 in Gaza in the nine days of "Operation Cast Lead".

One Israeli soldier was killed and 32 wounded in the ground offensive, Israel said. Four Israelis have been killed by the Hamas rocket strikes since December 27.

Israeli officials said the offensive, whose stated aim is to wreck the militants' rocket-launching infrastructure, could last many days.

"The government did everything before deciding to launch the operation. This is an unavoidable operation," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.

Calls for a ceasefire from the United States, Israel's main backer, other foreign governments and the United Nations failed to gain traction over disagreements about who should stop shooting first.

The United States said a ceasefire should take place as soon as possible but must guarantee an end to Hamas rocket strikes.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, envoy for powers sponsoring Middle East peace talks, is due to meet Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak today. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is due in Jerusalem on Monday.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate end to the ground operation. In a telephone conversation with Mr Olmert, Mr Ban conveyed his "extreme concerns and disappointment," a UN statement said.

Hamas called off a six-month truce with Israel last month and stepped up its rocket attacks, complaining at Israeli raids into Gaza and a continuing blockade of the enclave which Israel occupied from 1967 to 2005.

International peace efforts aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state foundered after Hamas won elections in 2006 and drove Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from Gaza a year later.

Israel has barred foreign correspondents from entering Gaza.

But Palestinian witnesses said the Israeli thrust cut Gaza in half from the border fence to the Mediterranean shore. Troops and armour had taken up siege positions around Gaza city itself.

Reuters