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A Palestinian medic tries to comfort a wounded boy at Shifa hospital, in Gaza City as Israel continued its ground offensive deeper into Gaza today

Israel had been reluctant to launch a ground offensive which would endanger its soldiers and risk international condemnation over mounting Palestinian civilian deaths.



Mr Netanyahu had agreed to an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire and to Thursday’s five-hour humanitarian ceasefire – both ignored by Hamas.

FURY AS FRENCH BAN GAZA DEMOS

France's Socialist government was embroiled in a row yesterday after banning protests against Israeli action in Gaza. In a move branded an attack on democracy, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said demonstrations planned for this weekend should be halted to avoid fights between ‘ultra’ Jewish vigilantes and pro-Palestinians.

Michele Sibony, of the Jewish Union for Peace, accused the government of ‘outlawing free speech’.

Youssef Boussoumah, of the Party of the Indigenous of the Republic, said: ‘France is criminalising any show of solidarity with the Palestinian people.’

He ordered the invasion after armed militant fighters attempted to infiltrate Israel through a hidden tunnel from Gaza. The gang of 13, believed to be plotting an attack on a nearby kibbutz, were spotted as they emerged and were killed in a massive airstrike.

Speaking before a Cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, Mr Netanyahu told the Israeli Defence Force to be ‘ready for the possibility of a significant expansion of the ground operation.’ Around 270 Palestinians – three-quarters of them civilians – have died since the start of the wider Israeli operation on July 8.



One Israeli has been killed by mortar fire and several seriously injured in rocket attacks.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party recently agreed to a unity government with Hamas, has been holding talks in Cairo amid efforts to negotiate a truce.

It came after the bodies of four children, three from the same family, lay on a single mortuary slab in the latest devastating picture to emerge of another Palestinian family crushed by their loss.



The bodies of the four children, including three from the Shuhaiber family, were pictured at the morgue at Al Shiga Hospital in Gaza City as Israeli troops pushed deeper into the region today to destroy rocket launching sites and tunnels in a bid to weaken the enclave's Hamas rulers.

Terrified: A Palestinian child shouts at doctors at al-Shifa hospital. But Israeli public opinion appears to strongly support the offensive after days of unrelenting rocket fire from Gaza and years of southern Israeli residents living under the threat

Flares fired by the Israeli forces lit up the northern Gaza strip tonight as it was revealed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to travel to the region Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza today destroying rocket launching sites and tunnels, as well as clashing with Palestinian fighters

An Israeli boy and an elderly woman take cover in a bomb shelter in Ashkelon, Israel tonight after a ground incursion into Gaza last night

An Israeli boy and girl jump and play around while gathered in a bomb shelter. There have been 10 days of airstrikes against Hamas

A family sit and wait in a bomb shelter in Ashkelon. Israeli prime minister said he had ordered the military to prepare for a 'significant expansion' of the operation

As the Palestinian death toll rose to 271 since the operation began, Hamas' political leader, Khaled Meshaal, vowed never to accept a ceasefire until Israel called back its warplanes and 'lifts the siege' on Gaza. Pictured is smoke rising after an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City today

Smoke rises from behind a mosque after an Israeli missile stroke on Gaza today as Israeli troops pushed deeper into the city

Meanwhile Israel lost its first soldier during the offensive this morning after Sgt. Eitan Barak, 20, from Herzliya, was killed deep behind enemy lines as hundreds of Israeli troops and tanks pushed into Gaza City, backed by a massive air assault that pummeled the Palestinian metropolis.

Medics have said Israeli tank fire killed five Palestinians in the city of Rafah, including a five-month-old baby, while a 22-year-old was also killed in a separate incident, AFP has reported.

Israel’s first major ground offensive in Gaza in over five years came as Egyptian ceasefire efforts stalled. Earlier this week, Israel accepted Cairo’s offer to halt hostilities, but Hamas refused, demanding that Israel and Egypt first give guarantees to ease the blockade on Gaza.

'It is not possible to deal with tunnels only from the air. It needs to be done also from the ground,' Mr Netanyahu said before a special cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv.



'We chose to begin this operation after the other options were exhausted and with the understanding that without the operation the price we will pay can be very high.'

An Israeli tank moves into position near the Israel and Gaza border today after Israel launched a ground operation late on Thursday following a 10 day campaign

In a statement, the Israeli the military said it targeted rocket launchers, tunnels and more than 100 other targets

A young girl is treated for her injuries inside the emergency room in Shifa Hospital following a missile attack on her home in Gaza City

The circumstances around the Israeli soldier's death remained shrouded in mystery today after Hamas' military wing said he was killed in an ambush in the town of Beit Lahiya only for Israeli media to counter claiming it was likely a case of friendly fire.



News of his death came as the Israeli Defence Force released night-vision footage of heavily-armed troops creeping across the border, over barbed wire barricades, into Gaza under cover of darkness.



And as the Palestinian death toll rose to 271 since the operation began, Hamas' political leader, Khaled Meshaal, vowed never to accept a ceasefire until Israel called back its warplanes and 'lifts the siege' on Gaza.

Meanwhile, the city's half-a-million residents spent last night cowering in their homes as Israeli bombs rained down, destroying homes as well as military targets. As a result, Gaza's hospitals have become flooded with civilian victims , including dozens of young children and babies.

Gaza health officials said 27 Palestinians have been killed since the ground operation began late Thursday. The military said it killed 14 militants in different exchanges of fire. It was not immediately clear if the militants were among those reported killed by Gaza authorities.

Israel's chief military spokesman Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz told Army Radio 'there were a number of points of friction through the night' and said the military was investigating the circumstances behind the soldier's death.



Israeli infantry soldiers arrive at a gathering point at an unspecified location next to the Israel border with the Gaza Strip today following the Israeli army's incursion into the Gaza Strip A volunteer helper talks to a little girl inside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City while her parents are being treated inside the emergency room after a rocket attack on their home in Gaza City

Pain: Israeli officials have said the goal is to weaken Hamas militarily and have not addressed the possibility of driving the Islamic militants from power

A Palestinian protester hurls a stone towards Israeli soldiers during a demonstration against the Israeli military action in Gaza, at Hawara checkpoint near the West Bank of Nablus

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to prepare for a 'significant expansion' of the operation. Pictured is a Palestinian protester as he hurls a stone towards Israeli soldiers during a demonstration against the Israeli military action in Gaza, at Hawara

In a statement, the military said it targeted rocket launchers, tunnels and more than 100 other targets. The military said 'a number' of soldiers were injured throughout the night.



As mediators gathered in Cairo to negotiate an end to the conflict, Hamas' political head, Mr Khaled Meshaal, refused to bow to Israeli firepower.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Meshaal made three demands of Israel's military chiefs: 'stop the aggression' of air strikes against targets in Gaza; release dozens of Palestinians arrested in response to last month’s killing of three Israeli students in the West Bank; and 'end the siege on Gaza permanently'.



'These are our clear demands,' Mr Meshaal told the paper. 'We won’t accept an agreement that prolongs the suffering of our people anymore.

'In Gaza, for the past seven years of siege, its 1.8 million residents have been living in a prison.'

He added: 'Every oppressed person fights and tries to gain independence with very limited resources; that’s how they fought in South Africa, and in the French Revolution. The Palestinians know Israel is stronger than them, but the Palestinains are also determined to liberate their land.'

Blameless: As the bombs continued to fall on Gaza City, the emergency room at al-Shifa hospital in the city began flooding with victims, many of whom were young children and babies



Ground offensive: As Gaza City burned after a night of intense bombing by Israeli forces, Israeli stepped up its offensive by sending hundreds of elite troops into the city in a large-scale ground offensive

Condemnation: Israel had been reticent about launching a ground offensive for fear of endangering its own soldiers and drawing international condemnation over Palestinian civilian deaths Heavy guns: An Israeli army m-109 mobile artillery unit fires a shell toward the Gaza Strip in support of IDF forces operating inside the Northern Gaza Strip Area where Sgt Barak was killed

His comments came as information about Sgt. Barak began to emerge.

According to the Times of Israel, the water sports enthusiast - who had only recently graduated from high school - wanted to serve in a combat unit, so he joined Battalion 931 of the Nahal Brigade, one of the IDF’s five major infantry formations. Battalion 931 also saw two wounded in the first day of fighting.

In Gaza City, plumes of black smoke could be seen rising from areas near the border with Israel and explosions echoed throughout the city.

Israeli aircraft have struck more than 2,000 targets in Gaza and 261 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the fighting.



The Israeli military said 50 rockets have been fired at Israel since the start of its ground operation, out of more than 1,500 since the fighting began last week. An Israeli civilian was killed earlier this week.



Medics wheel two wounded Palestinians into the emergency room of Shifa hospital in Gaza City this morning. Gaza health officials said 19 Palestinians have been killed since the ground operation began