Israelis drive towards heart of Gaza City as death toll nears 1,000

The Palestinian death toll rose to 952, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said, counting some 400 women and children among those killed in the Israeli campaign. Israel says ten Israeli soldiers and three of its civilians hit by Hamas rockets have died.

Blasts and heavy machinegun fire echoed through the city of 500,000 after Israeli tanks moved nearer to its densely populated centre but did not enter, residents said.

Talat Jad, 30, a resident of the suburb of Tel al-Hawa, where tanks arrived overnight, said he and 15 members of his family gathered in one room, too frightened to look out the window.

"We even silenced our mobile phones because we were afraid the soldiers in the tanks could hear them," Mr Jad said.

"Some of us recited from the Koran and others prayed that the sounds of explosions would die down."

Moussa el-Haddad, a doctor who trained as a resident at Leicester Royal Infirmary, said of the overnight Israeli bombardment in Gaza City: "I will never forget it. I went to the balcony and all I could see were fires, flashes of light and explosions. They destroyed a hotel near us. It was on fire until the morning.

"No-one is secure. You don't know as a person whether you will be alive or not."

One Israeli infantry battalion commander told a small group of reporters escorted into Gaza to visit troops on the front lines of the frustration his men faced at Hamas's hit-and-run tactics.

"Mostly the resistance has not been significant," said the officer. "A couple of days ago an armed squad popped up from a tunnel that was concealed by a nearby building. We took them out with tank fire and a bulldozer," he said.

The officer had little faith in the enemy's ability to keep up the fight.

"I think Hamas has already folded," he said.

In Cairo, a Hamas delegation resumed talks with Egypt on a ceasefire plan proposed by the Arab country, which borders the Gaza Strip and Israel and has made peace with the Jewish state.

Israeli aircraft attacked 60 targets, including tunnels used by Gaza militants to smuggle arms across the border from Egypt, weapon-making sites and Hamas command posts, the army said. Two rockets hit Beersheba in southern Israel, without causing casualties.

Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, the chief of staff of Israel's armed forces, told a parliamentary committee: "We have achieved a lot in hitting Hamas and its infrastructure, its rule and its armed wing, but there is still work ahead."

Lt-Gen Ashkenazi said Israeli aircraft had carried out more than 2,300 strikes since the offensive – Israel's deadliest against Palestinians in decades – was launched on 27 December.

The stated goals of the operation are to put an end to Hamas attacks on southern Israel and end smuggling of weapons from Egypt to the Gaza Strip.

Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, is heading to the region for a week of talks with leaders in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Syria aimed at ending the bloodshed.

Livni claims Gaza operation will help all 'moderate forces' in Middle East

TZIPI Livni, Israel's foreign minister, told visiting leaders of the American Jewish Committee yesterday that the success of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, which has claimed 952 Palestinian lives and sparked outrage throughout the Arab world, would help all "moderate forces" in the region.

Israeli media reports quoted her as saying Palestinians who believed in a two-state peace deal with Israel would be boosted by the blow to Hamas, which rejects negotiations and views all of historic Palestine as a sacred Islamic trust. Ms Livni said Israel's policy was to speak to moderates and use force against extremists.

But Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian president, who is said by analysts to be losing ground to Hamas among enraged public opinion in the West Bank, yesterday accused Israel of trying to annihilate Gazans, saying it was keeping up the onslaught in order to "wipe out our people over there".

Abdallah Abdallah, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council who is close to Mr Abbas, branded Ms Livni's comments "a cover-up for the crimes Israel is committing". He added: "Israel's practices are fuelling extremism and weakening the rational voices of peace-lovers in this region."

In Washington, the White House described as "inaccurate" reports that a phone call by Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, to George Bush, the US president, ten minutes before last week's UN Security Council vote on the war had forced the US to abstain from the resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

In a speech late on Monday, Mr Olmert said that, as a result of an order from Mr Bush after the phone conversation, the US had abstained, even though Condoleezza Rice "cooked up, phrased, organised and manoeuvred for" the ceasefire call, which was supported by the UK and France.