Israeli mobile artillery units fire shells towards Gaza from their position outside the northern Gaza Strip January 4, 2009. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)From Yahoo News/Reuters:
GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli troops and tanks split the Gaza Strip and ringed its main city on Sunday in an offensive against Hamas that has killed more than 500 Palestinians, many of them civilians.
Israeli tanks poured shells and machinegun-fire into suspected militant positions and war planes as Hamas fighters fought back with mortars and rockets.
Hamas fighters kept up rocket salvoes against southern Israel, defying efforts by the Middle East's most powerful army to stamp out the threat Israel had set out to achieve.
European Union foreign policy chiefs launched a mission to seek a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip but acknowledged they faced a difficult task persuading the parties to stop fighting.
At least 42 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed on Sunday as Israeli shells slammed into houses and Gaza's main shopping district, medical sources said.
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