GazaCity/Tel Aviv - Israeli soldiers fought heavy battles with local militants early Tuesday when ground troops on Gaza City's outskirts pushed even further into the city's southern neighbourhoods, as the military's chief of staff said attacks on Hamas gunmen would intensify. As Israel's assault against militants in the Strip entered its 18th day Tuesday, witnesses also reported intense fighting in the city's eastern and northern outskirts, with Israeli troops apparently trying to draw militants out from their well-prepared and heavily fortified positions inside the built-up civilian areas.
Israel Defence Force (IDF) Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi told a parliamentary committee Tuesday that the military would intensify its attacks on militants, and would also try to reduce the rocket fire from the salient on southern Israeli towns and villages.
"The work is still ahead of us," he said during a rare appearance before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
"The fighting is complex. ... We are following the IDF's plans and are acting in accordance with the political echelon," Lieutenant- General Ashkenazi said.
In the actual fighting, approximately 30 Palestinian militants were hit in the clashes, an Israeli military spokesman said, and by late afternoon the air force had attacked over 50 targets, including 30 tunnels used for smuggling weapons under the border.
Over 20 rockets and mortars had landed in Israel, one of which fell near a school in the coastal city of Ashkelon, but caused minimal damage and no casualties.
As in previous days of fighting, a three-hour humanitarian lull took place Tuesday to allow Gaza civilians to replenish supplies, and allow first aid workers to retrieve people trapped under the rubble in Gaza.
An Israeli Defence Ministry spokesman accused Hamas of directing small-arms fire at Israeli troops during the lull. He said that 109 trucks carrying relief supplies, including fuel for the Gaza power station, were scheduled to pass into the Strip during the day.
In the overnight fighting, Israeli aircraft carried out dozens of attacks, most of them to provide air support to the ground troops against Palestinian militants confronting them.
A total of 60 targets were struck, including more smuggling tunnels and a hotel in the north of the strip in which militants had gathered and from which they were planning to direct fire against the ground troops, he said.
The fighting around Gaza City intensified, as international efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to the Gaza crisis continued.
The UN Security Council - whose resolution of Thursday calling for an immediate ceasefire has thus far not been heeded - was scheduled to meet again in New York Tuesday.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was also set to travel to the region Tuesday for direct talks with the parties.
He was scheduled to make stops in Egypt, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait.
Israel launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27, first with a week of intensive airstrikes, and then with ground troops entering the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian medical officials said that by Tuesday the Israeli offensive had claimed the lives of 950 people, with 4300 wounded. It is unknown how many of the Palestinian casualties were militants and how many were civilians.
Israeli losses stand at ten soldiers killed, nine in the ground operation in Gaza and one when struck by a Palestinian rocket. The daily rocket attacks from the Strip also killed three civilians, and have wounded dozens more.
