Gaza City encircled with Israeli forces 'expected to enter within 48 hours'

The Israeli military said yesterday it had encircled Gaza City after more than a week of heavy fighting, in effect severing the territory into two, as Israeli ground troops appeared poised to enter the dense urban sprawl from the south.

- Peter Beaumont, Bethan McKernan

What seemed to be the beginning of the second stage of the Israeli ground operation was accompanied by a barrage of 16 rockets fired from southern Lebanon towards the Israeli city of Haifa. The rocket fire, claimed by Hamas, reached the farthest of any launched from the Lebanese side of the border by either the Palestinian militant group or Hezbollah, an Iranbacked Lebanese militia - a sign that escalation on Israel's northern front is still an active threat even as fighting intensifies inside Gaza.

The Hamas-run local health authority said that more than 10,000 Palestinians had been killed by airstrikes and artillery fire. The territory's 2.3 million civilians have no safe place to go, but with food, water, fuel and medical supplies dwindling, international calls for a humanitarian pause or ceasefire have been firmly rejected by Israel.

Moving under the cover of intensive bombardments on Sunday night from air, land and sea - accompanied by a communications blackout - Israeli troops moved to surround Gaza City as Hamas militants were reported to have pulled back to prepared positions deeper in the densely populated territory.