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Israel warns of ground offensive

Jets keep on pounding llamas targets in Gaza, death toll crosses 280

AFP, Gaza City
Israel warned yesterday it could send ground troops into Gaza as its warplanes continued pounding Hamas targets inside die enclave where more than 280 Palestinians have been killed in just 24 hours.
Hamas responded by firing rockets the deepest yet into Israel, with one hitting without causing casualties not far from Ashdod, home to Israel's second-largest port some 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Gaza, medics said.
In die latest international call for an end to the violence, the United Nations Security Council after an emergency session urged an immediate halt to all military operations.
However Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak vowed to expand the mammoth bombing campaign, unleashed in retaliation for ongoing militant rocket fire.
"The IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) will expand and deepen its operations in Gaza as
much as necessary," he told reporters before a cabinet meeting.
"We are ready for anything. If it's necessary to deploy ground forces to defend our citizens, we will do so," his spokesman quoted him as saying earlier.
Israeli television said the army had begun concentrating ground forces near the tiny Palestinian enclave, where medics said air raids have killed more than 280 people and wounded more than 600 since early on Saturday.
Waqilanes continued to pound the impoverished and overcrowded territory of 1.5 million, with at least six people killed on Sunday as jets hit targets in northern Gaza, sending thick columns of smoke barrelling into the air.
"Israel launched a military operation yesterday in the Gaza Strip in order to regain a normal life for the citizens in the south who have suffered for many years from incessant rocket, mortar and terror attacks," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
Israel is "aiming to change the situation on the ground whereby in the future there will be a tranquil border between Israel and Gaza," Isaac Herzog, the welfare minister, told reporters before the meeting.
Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian movement branded a terror group by Israel and the West, remains defiant.
Its exiled leader Khaled Meshaal called in Damascus for a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel and promised more suicide attacks. Hamas last carried out a suicide bombing against Israel in January 2005.
The Israeli onslaught -- one of the bloodiest single days in the 60-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict — has sparked massive international concern.
In New York, the UN Security Council called for an "immediate halt to all violence" and on the parlies "to stop immediately all military activities," without mentioning Israel or Hamasby name.
The Israeli campaign has been slammed by many Arab nations and on Sunday, 30 Jordanian lawmakers demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.
Israel's main ally the United States has blamed Hamas "thugs" for provoking the campaign by firing rockets into the Jewish state from Gaza, and urged Israel to avoid causing civilian casualties in its bombing raids.
"If Hamas stops firing rockets into Israel, then Israel would not have a need for strikes in Gaza." White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
Amid the bombing. Barak also authorised the passage of an aid convoy into Gaza on Sunday, his spokeswoman said.
Israel has kept Gaza largely sealed off since Hamas violently seized power there in June 2007, overrunning forces loyal to secular president Mahmud Abbas.
Egypt, which had slammed Israel for the bombing campaign. on Sunday blamed Hamas for not allowing hundreds of wounded to pass through the Rafah border
crossing — the only one that bypasses Israel -- to receive treatment
"The wounded are barred from crossing" into Egypt, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said in Cairo, blaming "those who control Gaza. We are waiting for the wounded to cross."
Israel unleashed "Operation Cast Lead" against Hamas targets mid-morning on Saturday, with some 60 warplanes hitting more than 50 targets in just a few minutes, and Barak vowing it would continue for "as long as necessary."
Hamas has responded by firing more than 90 rockets and mortar rounds into Israel, killing one man and wounding a handful of others.
The Israeli bombing came after days of spiralling violence that followed the expiry of a six-month Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and Hamas.
It also comes less than two months ahead of Israeli snap elections called for February 10.