Gaza sees bloodiest day of raids
Many of those killed in the air strikes and heavy fighting have been militants but some of the dead are civilians.
Israel’s operations, the biggest since it withdrew from Gaza last summer, began largely in the south in a bid to free a soldier captured by militants.
Troops have moved deeper into the north since rocket attacks on a city.
Israeli officials deny any plans to reoccupy Gaza.
The interior minister in the Hamas-led Palestinian government, Said Siyam, has called on the security forces to fight Israeli troops.
But correspondents say the minister has limited influence with the security forces, who are mostly loyal to Hamas’s rival movement, Fatah.
Deadly air strike
Palestinian medical sources said 22 Palestinians had been killed and dozens injured in Gaza since midnight local time, after a day of conflicting reports on the death toll.
Palestinian rocket threat
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In pictures: Gaza offensive
Reports say several of the deaths were in air strikes in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
The Israeli Army confirmed that a soldier had been shot dead near the town, in the first military death of the offensive.
The news came as Israeli troops consolidated their hold on territory seized overnight, advancing to the fringes of population centres where they clashed with Palestinian gunmen.
Tanks moved into an area of abandoned Jewish settlements in northern Gaza at dawn - in the start of what correspondents say is an attempt to establish a buffer zone and deny militant rocket crews access to the area.
In nearby Beit Lahiya, a Palestinian civilian was killed by machine-gun fire from an Israeli tank.
In the south, two Palestinians were killed and seven wounded in an air strike in the town of Abassan.
Israeli officials said aircraft fired at a group of Palestinian militants in the town near Khan Younis, after they fired anti-tank missiles at troops searching for tunnels used to move weapons.
In other developments:
Two Palestinian militants from the armed wing of the governing Hamas movement and a policeman were killed overnight as Israeli aircraft and artillery pounded northern Gaza
Israel has closed the main goods crossing point with Gaza following what it said were alerts received about a planned attack
Israeli police reportedly detained five senior members of Hamas in Jerusalem - police say they had been helping Hamas MPs conduct party activity in the city
The UN human rights watchdog deplored Israel’s campaign in Gaza as a breach of international law in an emergency resolution passed in Geneva.
‘Buffer zone’
Hamas’s military wing has fired two Qassam rockets at Ashkelon in the last 48 hours, the first time Palestinian militants have hit a major Israeli city with their crudely made rockets.
Why do thousands of Palestinians have to suffer death, destruction, lack of water, and electricity for the fate of ONE Israeli soldier?
Omar, Washington DC
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UN urges Israeli halt
The rockets hit the grounds of a school, but did not cause serious damage or injury.
Ashkelon - more than 10km (seven miles) north of Gaza - was thought to be out of range of crudely-built Palestinian rockets, which usually fall just beyond Gaza’s border with Israel.
Israeli minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer confirmed the military response, but insisted there was no wish to stay in Gaza.
For their part, groups like Hamas often say that their attacks are a response to Israeli military action - not just attacks on militants in Gaza, but raids, arrests and killings over in the occupied West Bank as well.
Full source:/news.bbc.co.uk
