President Nicolas Sarkozy France with met on Monday with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in Sharm el-Sheik, EgyptBy TAGHREED EL-KHODARY and ISABEL KERSHNER
GAZA — Backed by fire from air, sea and land, Israeli troops and tanks tightened their grip on Gaza on Monday, rebuffing diplomatic efforts to end the 10-day assault.
A cavalcade of foreign would-be mediators, including President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, headed to the region in quest of a cease-fire, as Israeli forces took control of Hamas rocket-launching areas in Gaza and seized high-rise buildings overlooking Gaza City after slicing through the center of the beleaguered territory on Sunday. The reported death toll of Palestinians passed 500 since the Israeli assault began, including 100 said to be civilians.
Israeli officials insisted that their military campaign would continue until “the equation” of the security situation was re-drawn and Hamas was no longer firing rockets at will into Israel. Despite the onslaught, Hamas militants continued to lob rockets into southern Israel, although fewer than on previous days, witnesses and the Israeli military said.
Amid the diplomatic efforts, Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, insisted Monday that Israel was “not only defending its right to defend itself” but was also waging a regional campaign “against extremism and against terror.”
She was speaking at a news conference after meeting with envoys from the European Union, whose rotating presidency is currently held by the Czech Republic.
Ms. Livni defended Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying Israel had acted to “change the equation” that existed before it struck against Hamas. In the past, she said, Hamas had been able to fire rockets at will and Israel showed restraint.
From now on, "When Israel is targeted, Israel is going to retaliate," she said.
Hospital officials in Gaza said 81 Palestinians had died so far during Israel’s ground offensive, now in its third day, and more than 400 had been injured.
Witnesses and hospital officials reported on Monday that 11 members of one family, including five children, died in one air strike and, according to Reuters, three children were killed in a separate incident as Israeli shellfire fell on Gaza.
At Gaza City’s main Shifa hospital, survivors of the Al-Samouni family said Israeli forces had ordered them to evacuate their homes in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City as the ground offensive moved closer to the city center. Family members said they had moved into another apartment house that was struck by a missile fired from an Israeli warplane at 6 a.m. on Monday.
Masouda Al-Samouni, 20, said she had been preparing food for her 10-month-old son when the missile struck. “He died hungry,” she said in an interview.
Hamas, the Islamist militant group that governs Gaza, had warned that Israeli ground troops would find themselves trapped, resulting in numerous casualties.
Israel reported the death of one soldier during the ground campaign. Four other Israelis, including civilians, were killed by shelling from Gaza since Israel began its assault on Dec. 27. The Israeli military, which said it was checking the reports of civilian deaths, also said it launched 30 air strikes overnight.
Senior Israeli officials said that the fighting could go on for days, if not weeks, and that calls for a cease-fire were premature. Apart from President Sarkozy’s mission to the region, the European Union, Egypt and others are engaged in contacts to try to build a truce.
Mr. Sarkozy met on Monday with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and planned to visit Jerusalem, Damascus and the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who is now the envoy for the so-called Quartet group of world powers, met the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and was quoted by Reuters as calling for an immediate cease-fire.
Hamas officials in Gaza said two senior officials from the organization were traveling to Cairo to discuss the crisis with the Egyptian authorities.
But as others talked, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak insisted that, while Hamas had “sustained a very heavy blow from us,” Gaza operation was not finished. “We have yet to achieve our objective,” he told Israel Radio.
Israel’s fundamental aim, Mr. Barak said, was “to change the reality of security for the south” of the country, which is threatened by Hamas missiles.
As the ground offensive unfolded on Sunday, Israel aimed its power at Hamas’s fighters and infrastructure and said its forces had killed several dozen militants, including a senior leader, and destroyed a smuggling tunnel.
Palestinian officials did not confirm the militants’ deaths, and it was difficult for foreign news organizations to verify Israel’s claims, because journalists have been restricted from entering Gaza. Some Gaza residents said on Monday they had seen several bodies of Hamas militants. But at the Shifa hospital on Sunday dozens of casualties seen being brought in over many hours all appeared to be civilians.
Most of the fighting was taking place in northern and eastern Gaza, in areas not far from the Israeli border. But at least five civilians were killed and many wounded on Sunday when Israeli shells or rockets landed in the market of Gaza City while people were stocking up on supplies.
Israel has said it wants to end Hamas’s will or ability to shoot rockets at civilians in southern Israel, which Hamas has been doing for years, terrifying tens of thousands of inhabitants. Recent rocket attacks have been of longer range and greater power, suggesting that Hamas has been successfully arming itself in recent months, and adding urgency to Israel’s efforts to stop the attacks.
But Israel has not made clear if its goal of ending rocket fire includes ending Hamas’s 18-month rule. The rockets from Gaza continued Monday after some 45 missiles hit Israel on Sunday, but the Israeli military said the number on Monday was around a dozen.
Rage in the Arab and Muslim worlds intensified over Israel’s war, with demonstrations in recent days in Turkey and Lebanon as well as in a number of European capitals. The leaders of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, which all have diplomatic relations with Israel, condemned the attacks as disproportionate and called for them to end.
But the United States placed the onus on Hamas, saying it must stop the rockets. The European Union, now headed by the Czech Republic, was increasingly critical of Israel and urged it to allow more aid into Gaza, saying it worried about rising civilian casualties.
Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said that Mr. Olmert had been constantly on the phone with world leaders and that the goal of the conversations was to construct a mechanism for a cease-fire.
In Moscow, President Dmitri A. Medvedev’s office said in a statement that he had talked with Mr. Olmert on Sunday night to express concern about Gaza’s civilians and stressed “the importance of the swiftest possible cease-fire.” The statement also said Russia, a member of the so-called quartet of Middle East mediators that also includes the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, planned to convene a meeting in Moscow to help “normalize the situation in the region.”
At the United Nations, the United States blocked the Security Council from issuing a formal statement on Saturday night calling for an immediate cease-fire, saying there was no indication Hamas would abide by any agreement.
Taghreed El-Khodary reported from Gaza and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem.
Reporting was contributed by Ethan Bronner on the Israeli-Gaza border, Steven Erlanger from Jerusalem, Dina Kraft from Sderot, Israel, Ellen Barry from Moscow, and Marc Santora from the United Nations. Alan Cowell contributed from Paris, and Graham Bowley from New York
