Eveniment

By The Associated Press

Thousands of Gaza City residents fled their homes on Thursday morning as Israel Defense Forces ground troops made their deepest foray yet into a crowded residential area, on Day 20 of its offensive on the Hamas-ruled coastal territory.

Israeli troops backed by helicopter gunships, tanks and heavy guns thrust
further into the city than ever before to seek out Hamas fighters, executing the army's most relentless shelling of the Gaza Strip in nearly three weeks of fighting.

Live video footage from a Reuters camera in central Gaza showed sustained artillery fire from the edge of the city for several hours. Shells exploded in downtown areas and long machinegun bursts echoed off Gaza's cramped housing blocks.

Much of the fighting was centred in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, where some residents fled on foot while others remained in the precarious shelter of their homes as a night-time attack stretched into the morning.

Tanks and bulldozers rolled into a neighborhood park, apparently seizing it as a kind of command center, witnesses said. Masked gunmen ran toward the areas under fire carrying bags containing unidentified objects.

Residents were seen fleeing their homes in pajamas, some wheeling elderly parents in wheelechairs. Others were stopping journalists' armored cars or ambulances pleading for someone to take them to safety.

Israeli forces have encircled the city of 500,000 people for days. Tanks have made forays towards the center to test the resistance of Hamas and other militant groups but have balked at launching all-out urban warfare in Gaza City, where Hamas militants are more familiar with the lay of the land and Israeli casualties would be liable to spiral.

Israel Air Force planes struck some 70 targets overnight, including weapons positions, rocket squads and a mosque in southern Gaza that it said served as an arsenal, the military said.