WASHINGTON—Hopes for ceasefire gave way to deeper, deadlier conflict late Thursday as Israeli forces pushed into the Gaza Strip for the first time in five years, opening a ground war after 10 days of aerial bombardment.

The mobilization into the coastal Palestinian enclave came amid the collapse of Egyptian-brokered talks, with Israeli infantry and heavy armour targeting tunnels and caches of rockets.

Reports of heavy clashes with Palestinian militants emerged within hours of the overnight operation, including battles in the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.

The ground operation would continue indefinitely “until it achieves its objective — to restore quiet and safety to Israelis for a long time to come, while significantly harming the infrastructure of Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Israel had agreed Tuesday to an Egyptian proposal calling for a return to the status quo as it existed July 7.

But Hamas, beset by a lopsided and growing death count of nearly 250 Palestinians versus one Israeli fatality from the more than 1,500 rockets fired from Gaza, was holding firm to a list of five demands that would significantly ease the blockade isolating the territory’s 1.8 million people.

Israel “will pay dearly” for the ground assault, said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. “Hamas is ready for a confrontation.”

Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, in operation since 2007, has all but blunted the Palestinian rocket salvos, though each of the more than 300 interceptions comes at a cost of $50,000. But deepening Israeli outrage over the daily sirens has tilted public opinion in favour of ground invasion, even as international concern heightens over the extent of Palestinian civilian casualties.

The last such incursion into Gaza, in January, 2009, saw some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis killed during three weeks of fighting.

In this latest spasm of violence, civilians account for 77 per cent of the Palestinians killed, according to United Nations estimates.

On Wednesday, U.S. officials placed blame for the violence firmly with Hamas. A day later, in the wake of reports of four Palestinian boys killed by an Israeli strike while playing soccer on a Gaza beach, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki softened its stance, calling the deaths “horrifying.”

“The tragic event makes clear that Israel must take every possible step to meet its standards for protecting civilians from being killed,” she said. “We will continue to underscore that point to Israel.”

The impact on Gaza included worsening power and water outages. Israel on Thursday called a six-hour halt of air strikes, enabling the flow of more than 700 truckloads of emergency aid.

The Israeli military also reported it had thwarted an attempted infiltration of 13 Hamas gunmen early Thursday via tunnel from Gaza to the southern Israeli kibbutz of Sufa.

As the six-hour humanitarian window ended, the mutual exchange of rockets and air strikes resumed apace. Among the targets in Gaza was Al-Wafa Hospital, the territory’s only rehabilitation facility, where medical staff scrambled to evacuate patients before the building was razed.

The Wafa facility had been struck earlier in the week, prompting the evacuation of its upper floors. Hospital director Basman Alashi said Thursday night’s bombardment came after a belated warning from the Red Cross.

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“We were attacked with more than 10 missiles. And then an hour later I received a call from the Red Cross on my cell phone saying, ‘It’s okay, we have information that the Israelis won’t attack your hospital,’ ” a furious Alashi told The Star.

“I hold the Red Cross responsible for this. And I will do my best to get rid of the Red Cross in Gaza.”

Officials with the International Committee of the Red Cross later denied making any such calls to Al Wafa.

Other countries active in mediation attempts include Turkey and Qatar, with the latter believed to wield the strongest leverage over Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday spoke directly with senior diplomats in Doha, the Qatari capital, to advance the delicate negotiations.

But with Hamas demands including an easing of border crossings, the opening of a sea corridor to Gaza and the recognition of the right of Gazans to worship at Jerusalem’s Al Aksa Mosque, the gap remained enormous.

And so, too, did the stakes, given the historic pattern of Gaza ground offensives triggering unintended consequences, sometimes drawing Lebanon-based Hezbollah into a companion conflict along Israel’s northern border.

As in 2006, when ground war in Gaza flared into an IDF invasion of southern Lebanon, Thursday’s mobilization came with robust Israeli public support, especially in the towns nearest to Gaza.

Reporting live from a hilltop in Sderot, the Israeli city that has born the brunt of a decade of Palestinian rocket fire, CNN reporter Diana Magnay stationed a camera in a position to capture both air strikes and a crowd gathered in celebration.

“I think you can probably see there are lots of Israelis gathered around who are cheering when they see these kinds of Israeli strikes.”

Magnay then tweeted — and quickly deleted — a message indicating her report didn’t sit well with some onlookers.

“Israelis on hill above Sderot cheer as bombs land on #gaza; threaten to ‘destroy our car if I say a word wrong.’ Scum,’ ” Magnay wrote.

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