Israel has continued to pound Gaza a week after sending in ground troops, despite the UN voicing disappointment ceasefire calls had not been heeded.

Israel said it launched 40 overnight air strikes, while Hamas militants fired several rockets at Israeli towns.

Senior Palestinian officials are in Egypt for talks on how to end the Gaza conflict, which began two weeks ago.

Health officials in Gaza say more than 800 Palestinians have died. Israel says 13 Israelis have been killed.

'Waterfall of blood'

The fresh wave of air strikes into Saturday morning had targeted weapons storage facilities and smuggling tunnels, according to Israel.

But Palestinian medical officials say eight people who appeared to be civilians were killed when an Israeli tank shell hit a street in Jabalya, in northern Gaza.

On the ground, Israeli troops are reported to have moved closer to the edge of Gaza City, though they have yet to go into the most densely populated areas.

Israel is preventing international journalists from entering the coastal strip.

Hamas fired more rockets at Israel on Saturday, a day after launching more than 30 of the missiles from Gaza, the Israeli military said. Two Israelis were injured by rockets in the Israeli town of Ashkelon.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urged all sides on Saturday to accept an Egyptian-brokered truce, after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.

But Mr Abbas - who heads the secular Fatah movement, bitter rivals of Hamas - does not control Gaza, and analysts say he will have little impact on the course of the conflict.

"If any party does not accept it [the truce], regrettably it will be the one bearing the responsibility, and if Israel doesn't want to accept, it will take the responsibility of perpetuating a waterfall of blood," Mr Abbas was quoted as saying by AP news agency
Hamas, which took control of Gaza in June 2007, has also sent delegates to Cairo for separate talks.

Egypt negotiated the last ceasefire between Hamas and Israel but, correspondents say, this conflict has strained an already difficult relationship between Cairo and Hamas.

Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Friday some incidents reported during the fighting in Gaza might warrant prosecutions for war crimes.

"The vicious cycle of provocation and retribution must be brought to an end," she told the human rights council.

Both sides on Friday ignored a UN Security Council call for an immediate ceasefire to the conflict, which began on 27 December.

Hamas rejected the move first, saying it had not been consulted on the resolution. It insisted any truce must include the ending of Israel's economic blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the continued rocket attacks on Israel showed the resolution was "unworkable".

Late on Friday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon telephoned Mr Olmert to express his disappointment that violence was continuing on the ground in disregard of the ceasefire call.

The United States, which abstained in the UN vote, offered further public support for Israel's military goals.

"This situation will not improve until Hamas stops lobbing rockets into Israel," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

Aid agencies say Gaza's 1.5 million residents are in urgent need of food and medical aid.

The UN resumed aid distribution on Saturday for Palestinians in Gaza after receiving security assurances from Israel.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) had suspended its Gaza operations on Thursday after one the driver of one of its trucks was killed, by what the truck company said was Israeli fire.

But the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) say they are "100% certain" that they did not fire on the truck.

The violence erupted as a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas unravelled in November and comes one month before a parliamentary election in Israel.



[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7821687.stm[/url]

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Some People say the most important thing
a fighter can have is heart.
show me a fighter who's nothing but heart,
and I'll show you a man waiting for a beating.
كافر

Peace talks not involving Hamas are futile, Hamas doesn't want peace, and so the Israeli army is not only faced with Extremist Hamas but people dragged into the fight in order to protect their families etc............Everything is going in favour of Hamas at the propaganda level. Militarily there can only be one winner, but if Israel holds back from entering the densly populated area how can they claim a victory........

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I think the Israeli commanders are doing Hamas a favour in terms of recruitment that is....I agree that on a military basis Israel are top dogs(Thanks to the US)but this isnt something that will ever be fixed by military action.

I thought that about Israel entering the center of Gaza city...High numbers of KIA is the only outcome for Israel if they went down that road...FIBUA/FISH is a nightmare and Israel are a little squeamish after what happened in Lebanon in 2006.

They have held back from going into real urban areas and getting really stuck in.

So restraint is a word they understand...but it only seems to be mentioned when its for their benefit

Its a shame they didnt hold back in the 60s...they might not be half as deep in **** as they are now

They have made their bed...and the more this goes on the more my sympathy for Israel fades

__________________
Some People say the most important thing
a fighter can have is heart.
show me a fighter who's nothing but heart,
and I'll show you a man waiting for a beating.
كافر

...and as such, I don't think my statements are a bit much at all. In fact, the "rain rockets" comment is quite mild.

The Israeli embassy in London is getting a lot of airtime today.

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Humans, a renewable resource?
Bumble Bees Die to sting you

They keep talking about targeting Hama's and avoiding civilians and making precision strikes.....bla.

All you see on the T.V. are cluster attacks. Sadly, they look amazing, which is likely why we keep being shown them.

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Humans, a renewable resource?
Bumble Bees Die to sting you

LOL...I know where you are coming from mate...We just worded it a little different thats all

We will see if Israel send boots into Gaza city...They might be ready for a ceasefire after a few days of street to street fighting.

The longer this goes on the less of an argument Israel has for holding the morale high ground

Time for the US to say what 90% of the world is thinking.
Tel Aviv only listen to Washington...lets be honest

__________________
Some People say the most important thing
a fighter can have is heart.
show me a fighter who's nothing but heart,
and I'll show you a man waiting for a beating.
كافر

...and Washington listens to no one, so we get what we have.

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Humans, a renewable resource?
Bumble Bees Die to sting you

hm... [URL="http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/01/finn_church_aid-funded_clinic_destroyed_in_gaza_473543.html"]http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/01/finn_church_aid-funded_clinic_destroyed_in_gaza_473543.html[/URL]

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My question is answered.

Yes, they will fire on the Red Cross.

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Humans, a renewable resource?
Bumble Bees Die to sting you

Very astute points Tex, fully agree... Israel will have to do some hard fighting to have a position of credibility... I think they should push forward and enter (once they have their CQB skills on board), otherwise, they should not follow current tactics and regroup at somestage in the future to tackle a larger Hamas that will lob rockets at them when the locals become too pissed off with them, at that point, Israel will have a chance to do it right...

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"Barrel High, Powder Dry!"

"Illic est haud effrego ex Veneratio"