Israel Pounds Gaza

Poke a lion in the eye and it will strike back.

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Israel pressed its assault against Hamas-ruled Gaza with a land operation and a surge of air strikes on Saturday, killing at least 42 Palestinians, medical officials said.

Dr Muawiya Hassanein, head of Gaza emergency medical services, told AFP at least 42 people were killed as a "great number of rockets fired by Israeli planes" slammed into the northern Gaza Strip.

At least seven civilians were among the dead and about 100 people were wounded, several of them critically, he said.

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Two Israeli soldiers were also killed on Saturday in Gaza, the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news channel reported, but there was no immediate confirmation from the army.

Tanks supported by helicopters moved into the area in and around the crowded town and refugee camp of Jabaliya and nearby Tufah in northern Gaza just after midnight, witnesses said.

By midday troops had pushed nearly three kilometres (two miles) inside the Gaza Strip, according to witnesses.

The urban battlefields were littered with debris as frightened residents hid inside their homes and imams read Koranic verses over mosque loudspeakers.