Thousands of Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships surrounded Gaza's largest city and fought militants at close range Sunday, the first full day of an overwhelming ground offensive in the coastal territory. Israel said it has inflicted a heavy blow against Hamas as it expands a weeklong offensive meant to stop rocket fire on southern Israel. But spiraling civilian casualties among Palestinians fueled an international outcry, even as the U.S. blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement Saturday night calling for an immediate cease-fire. Israel's ground forces moved in after nightfall Saturday following hours of intense, fiery artillery shelling to clear the way, and Hamas warned that its fighters would turn Gaza into an Israeli "graveyard." --associated press (19 images)
Artillery shells explode above Gaza City on Jan. 4, 2008, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border. Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza and clashed in fierce battles with Hamas fighters today as Israel upped its deadly offensive on the Islamists in their overcrowded stronghold. Explosions shook over the north of Gaza and thick black smoke billowed into the sky as fighting raged in the biggest Israeli military operation since the 2006 war in Lebanon. AFP / Getty Images / Patrick Baz
Israeli artillery guns fire towards the Gaza Strip from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border on Jan. 4, 2009. AFP / Getty Images /
Shay Shmueli
Israeli army gunners clean a mobile artillery piece at a staging area on the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip early Sunday, cutting the coastal territory into two and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas militants gained momentum. AP / Bernat Armangue
Israeli infantry soldiers walk into Gaza on Jan. 04, 2009 on the border between Gaza and Israel. Israeli forces are battling Hamas fighters as they attempt to take the rocket launch areas used by Hamas since Israeli troops entered Gaza after nightfall on Saturday. It is expected that this will be the first wave of assault, with some 10,000 Israeli troops and hundreds of tanks massed on the Gaza border. Tens of thousands of military reservists are also being called up by the Israeli government. Getty Images / Uriel Sinai
An Israeli Apache attack helicopter drops flairs over the northern Gaza Strip on Jan. 4, 2009, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border. AFP / Getty Images / Menahem Kahana
A wounded Palestinian woman is helped into a hospital in Gaza Jan. 4, 2009. Israeli shells killed at least 12 Palestinian civilians and wounded 40 others when they exploded in Gaza City's main shopping area, medics and witnesses said. Israel has so far carried out over 700 air strikes in Gaza within the last week and over 400 Palestinians are reported to have been killed. Getty Images / Abid Katib
A Palestinian medic carries a child, injured during the Israeli army operation in Gaza, into Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip early Sunday, cutting the coastal territory into two and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas militants gained momentum. AP / Fadi Adwan
Palestinians carry a boy, injured during an Israeli army operation in Gaza, into Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. AP / Khalil Hamra
A woman shouts for help as she arrives with her wounded grandchild and daughter (in the back of the car) at the Al-Shifa hospital on Jan. 4, 2009 in Gaza City, Gaza Strip. Getty Images / Abid Katib
Smoke trails rise up into the sky after rockets were launched toward southern Israel by Hamas fighters from the town of Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip on Jan. 4, 2009, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border. Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza and clashed in fierce battles with Hamas fighters today as Israel upped its deadly offensive on the Islamists in their overcrowded stronghold. AFP / Getty Images / Patrick Baz
An Israeli reacts as he examines the damage in his house after a rocket fired by Palestinians militants from Gaza hit in Sderot, southern Israel, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. Israel pummeled Palestinian militants from the air, sea and ground early Sunday after taking the risky decision to embark on a land invasion in the crowded, Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. AP / Ariel Schalit
An Israeli woman wipes tears as she speaks on the phone after a rocket fired by Palestinians from Gaza hit the neighboring house in the town of Sderot, southern Israel, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. AP / Ariel Schalit
An Israeli woman is evacuated in shock from the scene of a Palestinian Qassam rocket attack on Jan. 4, 2009 in the southern town of Sderot, Israel. One Israeli soldier has been reported killed and dozens wounded after Israel launched a wide-scale ground assault against the Gaza Strip in an effort to put an end to Hamas rocket attacks against the Jewish State. Getty Images / David Silverman
Israeli soldiers comfort each other during the funeral of 22-year-old Staff Sergeant Dvir Emmanueloff at the Mt. Hertzel military cemetery in Jerusalem on Jan. 4, 2009. Emmanueloff was killed Sunday during a battle with Palestinian Hamas militants in the northern Gaza Strip. AFP / Getty Images / Gali Tibbon
Palestinian masked protesters carry replica rockets as they march during a demonstration held by Hamas movement and Islamic groups to protest Israel's attacks against the Gaza Strip, in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday Jan. 4, 2009. More than 5,000 supporters of Hamas and Lebanon's Islamic Group held a sit-in outside the U.N. house in central Beirut carrying Palestinians flags and Islamic green banners. Dozens of riot police members stood guard in front of the U.N. building. AP / Hussein Malla
A Jordanian demonstrator shouts anti-Israeli slogans, and holds a picture of late Hamas leader Nizar Rayan, who was killed Thursday in an Israeli airstrike with four of his wives and 10 of his children, during a rally protesting the Israeli attacks in Gaza, in Amman, Jordan, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. AP / Mohammad abu Ghosh
A young boy places a lit candle behind barbed-wires as Lebanese riot police stand guard in front of the Egyptian embassy in Beirut on Jan. 4, 2009 during a demonstration against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip. Earlier today, Lebanon anti-riot police fired tear gas and a water cannon at protestors near the US embassy compound in Awkar, north of Beirut. Thousands also demonstrated outside the UN headquarters in Beirut. AFP / Getty Images / Anwar Amro
Pro-Palestinian supporters burn an home made Israeli flag outside Israel's embassy in Athens on Jan. 4, 2009. Tens of thousands of Israeli troops backed by tanks battled Hamas fighters in Gaza fields and roads on Sunday as the Palestinian death toll from the offensive to end militant rocket attacks passed 500. AFP / Getty Images / Louisa Gouliamaki
An Israeli soldier prepares to fire tear gas towards Palestinian youths throwing stones at cars driving on a road used by Israelis near the Jewish settlments of Adora and Telem on the northern entrance of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron during a demonstration in solidarity with Gaza on Jan. 4, 2009. AFP / Getty Images / Hazem Bader
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.