Israel says 14 'militants' have been killed as infantry, tanks and artillery target Hamas tunnels

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Israeli tanks, infantry and engineering units have launched a broad assault on Gaza after last ditch efforts to secure a ceasefire deal in Cairo collapsed.

Eleven Palestinians were killed, Palestinian health officials said, while Israel claimed it had killed 14 "militants" in the attack which began on Thursday evening.

One Israeli soldier was killed and another two soldiers were wounded.

Israel's chief military spokesman 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.

It said Israel had targeted rocket launchers, tunnels and more than 100 other sites.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the decision to launch the ground invasion was taken at an Israeli security cabinet meeting on Tuesday night after Hamas had rejected an Egyptian ceasefire proposal and after Hamas militants tried to infiltrate Israel through a tunnel from Gaza.

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defence minister Moshe Ya'alon then met on Thursday with the Israeli military leadership where the decision to launch the operation later that night was taken.

"In light of the despicable and relentless aggression by Hamas and the dangerous infiltration into Israel, Israel is obliged to protect its citizens," the statement said.

In reply, Hamas said Israel's ground incursion into the Gaza Strip would have "dreadful consequences".

"It does not scare the Hamas leaders or the Palestinian people," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. "We warn Netanyahu of the dreadful consequences of such a foolish act."

As evening fell over the coastal enclave, an increasing barrage of tank fire, naval gunfire and air strikes lit up the night sky. Israeli media reported the loud rumblings of Israeli tanks and D9 bulldozers revving up their engines to cross the border.

It was the first major Israeli ground offensive in Gaza in just over five years.

The opening barrage hit eastern areas before moving to the north where it intensified. The heaviest hit areas were a band of northern areas from Sudaniya on the coast running through Attatra and Salateen to Beit Lahia and Jabaliya.

Later in the evening, attacks were reported in the south of Gaza in Khan Younis and Rafah.

The long threatened assault came after a five hour humanitarian pause in Gaza, observed by both sides, to allow civilians, who have been under fire for 10 days to stock up on food and medicine.

As the assault started, electricity was cut to large areas of the north and Gaza city.

A large number of flares over Jabaliya suggested that was the route of the Israeli ground forces advance.

As the barrage began, Hamas and other factions fired rockets from their launch sites, including the largest rockets in their arsenal, the R160.

Israeli ground troops have moved into Gaza after ceasefire talks in Cairo failed. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

Strikes by the Israeli Iron Dome system scattered some of the rockets in bright shards across the sky.

One target was the Hamas run Wafa hospital near Shuyaiiya in the east of Gaza city where foreign volunteers called for help after the building came under rocket fire.

The hospital had been ordered to be evacuated of its 17 severely ill patients on Thursday, many of them bed ridden but the hospital's management had refused.

During the afternoon Gaza hospital sources reported that four children had been killed in the latest violence.

Lt Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said that the operation is open-ended.

"We will be striking the infrastructure," he said. "We will be striking the operatives in order to safeguard the civilians of the state of Israel especially issues to do with tunnelling, that was exemplified earlier today."

"Our forces, large ground forces accompanied by massive air force support, naval forces and intelligence, are taking over targets in Gaza, operating against tunnels and terror activists and infrastructure," Israel's chief military spokesman Brig Gen Motti Almoz said.

He called on Gaza residents to evacuate areas, warning the "military is operating there with very great force".

Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July to stamp out rocket attacks from Gaza and the army said the new operation will include ground and air assaults.

"This stage of operation 'Protective Edge', led by the IDF's Southern Command, will include close coordination between IDF units including infantry, armoured corps, engineer corps, artillery, and intelligence combined with aerial and naval support," it said.

"This effort will also be supported by the Israeli Security Agency and other intelligence organisations," the army added.

"In the face of Hamas' tactics to leverage civilian casualties in pursuit of its terrorist goals, the IDF will continue in its unprecedented efforts to limit civilian harm," it said.

Thousands of Israeli soldiers had massed on the border with Gaza in recent days, waiting for the order to go in.

Israel had called up 48,000 reserve soldiers, and later the cabinet authorised the military to call up 18,000 more, the military said.

At least 240 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes since 8 July, many of them children, medics in Gaza said, with a NGO based in the coastal enclave saying 80 of the deaths are civilians.

Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said the Islamist Palestinian movement refused to accept the Cairo proposal "in its current form" and is seeking a series of conditions for a truce with Israel.