Israel has announced the deaths of two of its soldiers on the second day of a ground offensive into Gaza that it says is aimed at destroying Hamas' cross-border tunnels.
At least 34 Palestinians also died on Saturday, the second day of the Israeli ground invasion, as Israel intensified its shelling by tanks and artillery of the northern Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera's John Hendren, reporting from Jerusalem, said the two soldiers were killed during an exchange of gunfire as they fought Palestinians in tunnels near the Israeli Gaza border.
The two were the first Israeli soldiers to die in this recent escalation while fighting the Palestinians. The two Israeli solders were killed on Friday, one in an incident of friendly tank fire and another in an accident in a tunnel.
During the exchange in which the soldiers were killed, a Palestinian fighter also died and several others escaped back into a tunnel into Gaza, our correspondent said.
Earlier on Saturday, an Israeli Bedouin was killed when a rocket hit his encampment in southern Israel in an attack which also wounded four of his family, among them two young children, police said.
Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Gaza, spoke of of "relentless and constant thuds" of tank fire across the eastern border of Gaza on Saturday, "with only around 10 seconds between each".
She said the tanks were concentrated along eastern Gaza, bordering Israel, and that there were many civilian casualties in the area.
Heavy Israeli artillery attacks were reported by an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent across other areas of the Hamas-ruled territory.
Drones, jets and attack helicopters patrolled the skies.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll over 12 days now stood at 339. That figure included 77 children, 24 women and 18 senior citizens. More than 2,385 people have been injured.
In another development on Saturday, agencies said Egyptian soldiers in north Sinai prevented an aid convoy of activists from reaching the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip.
An army officer at the Balloza checkpoint, one of many along the desert highway to Rafah, told an AFP correspondent that the security situation in the peninsula was too unstable to allow the convoy of 11 buses and 500 activists to pass.
There was a brief scuffle between some activists and soldiers but no arrests were made.
Egypt usually keeps the crossing closed, citing a counterinsurgency operation against fighters in north Sinai, but has allowed entry to Palestinians wounded in the 12-day conflict between Hamas and Israel.
The Egyptian military had earlier said it was sending 500 tonnes of food and medical aide to Gaza.
Hamas has refused to accept a ceasefire with Israel until it receives guarantees that border crossings to Gaza - all but one under Israeli control - will be opened.
Success 'not guaranteed'
The ground offensive is a new phase in Israel's Operation Protective Edge operation which the military said would destroy tunnels used by Hamas.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said the ground operation was necessary to deal with the tunnels, but admitted there was "no guarantee of 100 percent success".
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The offensive failed to prevent an incursion by a tunnel into Israel by Qassam Brigades fighter on Friday. The attack was foiled by the Israeli military, however, with one fighter killed. On the diplomatic front, the Palestinian and Israeli UN ambassadors traded blame for the violence, with Israel's Ron Prosor insisting no other country would "tolerate ... terrorist" rocket fire at its citizens. Meanwhile, Qatar will host a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday to try to reach a ceasefire agreement with Israel to bring an end to 12 days of warfare. Due to take place in Doha, the meeting will be headed by the Gulf state's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who has been acting as a "channel of communication" between Hamas and the international community, a senior source familiar with the matter told Reuters news agency. "Qatar has presented Hamas' requests to the international community, the list has been presented to France and to the A UN statement said Ban will be traveling to Doha, Kuwait City, Cairo, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Amman and that other stops might be added. Ban would help Israelis and Palestinians "in coordination with regional and international actors, end the violence and find a way forward," Jeffrey Feltman, UN under secretary-general for political affairs, told the Security Council. |
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Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
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