© AFP/Getty ImagesThe remnants of an Israeli missile lay on the ground inside a heavily damaged building of the Erez border crossing in the Gaza Strip.
Declaring a new phase in its operation, Israel's military said it was entering the coastal strip to wipe out Hamas's rocket capabilities and to dismantle what is believed to be an extensive network of tunnels used by the militants to infiltrate Israel.
The operation came hours after diplomatic efforts in Cairo to negotiate a sustainable truce between Israel and Hamas failed.
The ground offensive began at 10 p.m. Thursday and involves dozens of infantry, armed core, and artillery units, as well as air and naval support, said Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner. The military, he added, plans to call up additional reservist troops to bolster the 50,000 reservists called up so far.
Comment: All this against a region with no real military to speak of, no advanced military hardware, and largely ineffectual rockets. Either the IDF is stupendously inept, or it's the biggest psychopathic bully in the world. I think we all know which.
In Gaza City, from a high floor in an apartment building, reporters watched an hour of heavy fire along the eastern and northern borders of the Gaza Strip.
The sky was lit, as if by lightning strikes. There were sustained barrages, flares and drones flying overhead. Israeli warships fired from the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas' military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, reported fighting with Israeli troops near the Erez border crossing.
Electricity was out across Gaza city and local residents poured into the Al-Deira Hotel, where many foreign journalists are staying. The Internet was down and the cellphone coverage was spotty.
Lerner said that the military's activities along the southern part of the Gaza Strip were in coordination with Egypt, but did not elaborate on the extent of the cooperation. The army has advised Gaza residents to stay away from Hamas militants.
The ground invasion also comes hours after a five-hour "humanitarian truce" that allowed residents of Gaza to venture out of their homes.
Just as the temporary cease-fire ended at 3 p.m. local time (8 a.m. Eastern time), Palestinian militants in the coastal enclave fired a rocket at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, about eight miles north of the Gaza border, but no injuries were reported, the Israeli military said. Three mortar rounds were also fired toward Israel after the truce took effect at 10 a.m. (3 a.m. EDT).
Until the last minute when the U.N.-requested truce began, the sides were still fighting, with Hamas firing rockets into southern Israel and Israel launching airstrikes against the homes of at least three Hamas political leaders.
But once the cease-fire started, Gaza residents jammed the streets, rushing to shops and banks to stock up on food and withdraw money after 10 days of fierce fighting.
In the early morning hours, a military spokesman said, the Israeli air force hit the opening of an incursion tunnel used by Hamas militants to sneak under the Gaza border fence for an attack inside Israel. The opening was about 250 yards inside Israel and a little more than a mile away from a kibbutz, apparently the intended target.
An infrared camera video clip released by the Israelis shows 13 men armed with long weapons scurrying about and then entering a hole in the ground in the middle of a field. Once they are all below ground, the screen fills with a flash of light and a large cloud.
Lerner said at least one militant was believed to have been killed in the strike and that the remaining fighters apparently returned to Gaza through the tunnel. He said the attack "could have had devastating consequences" and that the militants were armed with "extensive weapons," including rocket-propelled grenades, the Associated Press reported.
The al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for the infiltration, asserting that the airstrike came after the fighters successfully completed their mission. Hamas denied that any of the infiltrators were killed.
"During their withdrawal and after accomplishing their mission, they were hit by enemy jets," the group said in a statement. "All our mujahideen came back safely."
The military instructed the approximately 300 residents of Kibbutz Sufa to stay in their homes around the time of the 4:30 a.m. airstrike, and there were no reports from Israel that the infiltrators had succeeded in carrying out an attack. The military released photographs of rocket-propelled grenades and other armaments they said were confiscated from the Israeli end of the tunnel near the southeastern Gaza Strip.
Israel and Hamas were searching for a way forward Thursday 10 days after the current conflict began. A senior Israeli military official on Wednesday declared that a ground invasion of Gaza was a "very high possibility."
Israel announced a unilateral "humanitarian truce" for five hours Thursday to allow Gaza residents to stock up on food and other supplies and let aid reach civilians. The pause in fighting was requested by the United Nations, Lerner said.
Comment: Just enough time to let Gazans die with a full stomach. How kind of the IDF.
In a statement Thursday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed appreciation that the "humanitarian pause" in Gaza was "has mostly been respected by all parties." He said it "allowed civilians in Gaza to resume some daily routines and for repairs to start on essential electrical and water infrastructure," while Israeli civilians experienced "a reprieve from rocket fire."
Ban said the truce "shows that a cessation of hostilities is possible if all the parties demonstrate the necessary will and put the interests of civilians, who have borne the brunt of this escalation, first." He said he hopes the pause can lead to "a sustainable cease-fire." But he stressed a need to address "the underlying factors that have led to the recent escalation," notably by bringing Gaza under "one legitimate Palestinian government" that adheres to Palestine Liberation Organization commitments to Israel and by fully reopening legal crossings between Israel and Gaza.
In the early morning Thursday, Hamas said it would hold its fire. The Islamist militant group rejected an earlier cease-fire proposed by Egypt, and a top Hamas leader declared that the group is alone in the world as it battles Israel.
Just two hours after the five-hour truce began, it was violated by Gaza militants who fired a salvo of mortar rounds into southern Israel. It was not clear whether the mortars came from the Hamas military wing or one of the other, smaller factions.
Still, there appeared to be some positive movement toward a more permanent cease-fire.
An Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo to discuss a truce deal. The group includes the director of the Israel's domestic security services, known as Shin Bet; a special envoy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and the head of the Defense Ministry's political-security department, according to Israeli news media.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday evening met in Cairo with Mousa Abu Marzook, the head of the Hamas political bureau, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported. Abbas is scheduled to visit Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi on Thursday.
Reuters news service reported that Qatar, which has close relations with Hamas, is seeking a role in the negotiations. But a senior Israeli official said Thursday that the Qatari initiative being currently mentioned in negotiations in Cairo is "not on the table."
"Israel wants to see an arrangement that [Abbas] is involved in," said the official.
Hamas is pushing to ensure the involvement of Qatar as a mediator in the ceasefire negotiations but the Qatari initiative does not include the involvement of the Palestinian Authority in the process or as having a future role in Gaza.
Hamas continued to shower rockets Wednesday into southern and central Israel, including Tel Aviv, underscoring the extent to which the militants believe they still have the military capability to persuade Israel to accept their terms, analysts said.
"From their rationale, they are holding strong, as if they have nothing to lose," said Miri Eisen, a former Israeli army intelligence official. She added, "If they feel they have nothing to lose, they can continue this for a long time."
That attitude is increasing pressure on Israel. Hundreds of Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 200 Palestinians but have done little to stop Hamas rockets from striking Israeli towns. Human rights activists are accusing Israel of killing innocent civilians and possibly committing war crimes. Egypt, once a reliable ally, no longer seems to have the negotiating clout it once had.
Comment: Insanity: doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.
All this is generating discussions - within Israeli political and military circles and on television, radio and editorial pages - of a possible ground invasion of Gaza in the coming days. In Tel Aviv, a high-ranking Israeli military official told reporters Wednesday that there was "a very high possibility" of such an operation, adding, "If you want to efficiently fight terrorism, you need to have boots on the ground."
More than 113 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel on Wednesday, according to the Israeli military.
By Wednesday night, 222 people had been killed in Gaza during the nine-day operation, including 49 minors and 24 women, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. More than 1,600 people have been wounded in Gaza, the officials said.
Among the latest casualties were four Palestinian children, all younger than 12, who were killed by an Israeli missile or shell while playing on a beach in Gaza near a hotel used by foreign journalists, according to witnesses and Palestinian officials. The four boys were cousins. Seven others - adults and children - were reported wounded in the strike.
The Israeli army, calling the incident tragic, said the target had been a Hamas operative.
President Obama addressed the situation in brief White House remarks. Although he did not specifically mention the beach deaths, he said, "We are all heartbroken by the violence . . . especially the death and injury of so many innocent civilians in Gaza." Obama said the United States would continue to "use all our diplomatic resources and relationships" to bring about a lasting cease-fire. "In the meantime," he said, "we are going to support efforts to protect civilians in Israel and Gaza."
For the first time in the conflict, Israel on Wednesday used its airstrikes to target the homes of top Hamas political leaders. They included Mahmoud Zahar, a founder of Hamas who played a prominent role in the Islamist militant group's 2007 takeover of Gaza.
The strike on Zahar's four-story house toppled its facade into the garden. Zahar was nowhere to be found Wednesday; he fled before the Israeli operation began and is assumed to be in hiding.
A neighbor, Ahmed al-Jarosha, said: "We knew when the cease-fire was rejected that we would start to see the Israelis hit political leaders. It is no surprise."
The homes of three other Hamas leaders who are also members of the Palestinian Legislative Council were hit by airstrikes early Wednesday. None of politicians was injured.
In another possible signal of its intentions, Israel urged tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza to evacuate border areas.
Hamas leaders called for Gazans to remain in their homes. The militants did not stop evacuees from leaving but did not assist them. Hamas doctrine holds that those who abandon a neighborhood are following the orders of the occupiers.
"What is the real problem? Hamas asking people to stay in their own homes? Or the Israelis threatening their lives if they stay in their homes?" said Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas political leader.
Israelis condemn the practice as a cynical use of human shields. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, "We are using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they're using their civilians to protect their missiles."
Israel came under sharp criticism Wednesday for its tactics. The watchdog group Human Rights Watch said Israeli air attacks in Gaza were targeting civilian structures and killing civilians, acts that could constitute war crimes. Israel has denied such allegations.
Hamas and other Palestinian militants boast that if there is a ground invasion of Gaza, they would use it as an opportunity to prove their mettle, saying that Israeli airstrikes would cease during the invasion and Israeli soldiers would be vulnerable to attack.
"It is best when the Israeli soldiers come to us," said Abu Ahmed, chief spokesman for the militant group Islamic Jihad, whose rocket arsenal and numbers of fighters in Gaza are second only to Hamas.
"We know the terrain. It is our land," he said.
Others in Gaza warn that a ground incursion by Israel would create a humanitarian crisis and a potential bloodbath. "It would be a catastrophe," said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al-Azhar University in Gaza.
Hamas has struggled as a government to deliver a better life for the people of Gaza. Its military wing has achieved some success in the current conflict: Its rockets reached farther than before, causing air sirens to sound repeatedly over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and Hamas managed to penetrate Israeli airspace with a drone.
"But Hamas today as a military doesn't have much beyond rockets, and the arsenal is not renewable" because the smuggling tunnels from Egypt are closed and Israel does not allow Gaza to have a seaport or airport, said Ibrahim Ibrash, a former culture minister in Gaza.
Hamas also finds itself more isolated than ever. Standing in front of the Shifa Medical Center, Gaza's largest hospital, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri complained that Gaza and Hamas have been abandoned even by their brothers. "The Arab world has done nothing. The Arab world is silent about Gaza."
Hamas leaders now openly heap scorn on Egypt's new government, headed by Sissi, and complain that Cairo is working closely with the Israelis to crush the Islamist movement. "The Egypt media attacks Gaza. Shame on you. The Arab position is shameful," Abu Zuhri said.
Raghavan reported from Jerusalem and Eglash reported from Tel Aviv. Karen DeYoung in Washington and Islam Abdel Karim in Gaza City contributed to this report.
Comment: How convenient. While the world watches Ukraine and the passenger plan crash tragedy, the Israelis invade Gaza for the umpteenth time.