Israel 'close to achieving its goals'

Israeli forces edged into the Gaza Strip's most populous area yesterday, killing at least 29 Palestinians on the 16th day of a devastating offensive, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was close to achieving its aims.

Thick black smoke rose over the city of Gaza as fighting raged on in the Hamas-ruled territory in defiance of international calls for a ceasefire.

Medical workers said about half the Palestinians killed yesterday were civilians.

"Israel is getting close to achieving the goals it set for itself," Mr Olmert told his Cabinet in Jerusalem, giving no timeframe for an end to a campaign launched with the declared aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks.

"But patience, determination and effort are still needed to realise these goals in a manner that will change the security situation in the south," Mr Olmert said, referring to Israeli towns where life has been seriously disrupted by rocket salvoes.

On the usually quiet Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, shots were fired from Syria at Israeli army engineers working on the frontier fence, but no one was hurt and it was not immediately clear who was responsible, an Israeli military spokesman said.

Backed by helicopter gunships, Israeli troops and tanks pushed into eastern and southern parts of the city of Gaza, confronting Hamas militants who fired anti-armour missiles and mortar bombs.

In Jerusalem, Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel said Hamas leaders were hiding in Gaza's foreign missions, hospitals and bunkers to elude Israeli forces. He did not name the missions.

The Israeli Cabinet was expected to discuss a possible "third stage" of the offensive in which the military would storm into Gaza's urban areas, a politically risky move a month before Israel's national election. The Palestinian death toll since Israel's offensive began on December 27 stands at 874, many of them civilians, Gaza medical officials said. Thirteen Israelis - three civilians hit by rocket fire and 10 soldiers - have been killed, Israel says.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said his ruling Islamist group would not consider a ceasefire until Israel ended its air, sea and ground assault and lifted its blockade of Gaza. Israel, describing as unworkable a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire, wants a halt to rocket attacks and arrangements to ensure that Hamas cannot rearm through tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border.

New street fighting in the Gaza Strip killed 10 gunmen, medical workers said. Israeli air strikes killed three fighters and a member of the Hamas police force. Israel's military said it attacked a mosque used to store weapons, 10 squads of gunmen, three rocket-launching sites and the house of a Hamas commander.

Fewer rockets have been fired into Israel, but two struck Beersheba, 42 kilometres from the Gaza Strip, and at least four hit other communities, police said. There was some damage but no casualties.

Along Gaza's border with Egypt, Israeli aircraft pounded suspected tunnels. Witnesses said Israeli warplanes have been flying over Egyptian territory during their bombing runs. The spokesman said Israel had lodged a complaint with a UN monitoring force about the shooting on the Golan Heights.

Israel captured the plateau in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it in a move not recognised internationally.