Hamas fights Israeli troops

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israeli troops battled Hamas fighters in Gaza’s main city for the first time Monday - after dozens died in a day of clashes - while the government fended off worldwide calls for a ceasefire.
Amid raging combat in Gaza City, and as the Palestinian death toll rose to 555, French and Russian presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitry Medvedev both demanded a halt to the conflict. But Israeli ministers said the offensive would go on.
Large explosions and heavy exchanges of fire rocked the Shejaiya neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City as Israel pressed its campaign to halt Hamas rocket attacks.
Hamas said in a statement that its fighters had fired missiles at seven tanks in the same district. The group’s armed wing said that ten Israeli soldiers were killed in the clashes.
The Islamic Jihad movement said several of its members were killed in the fighting.
Israeli military sources confirmed that troops were involved in heavy clashes in that area, but refused to comment whether its forces had suffered casualties.
Flares lit up the skies over the blacked-out neighbourhood. Assault helicopters were also seen.
At least 12 children were among 50 new bodies taken to Gaza hospitals after air missile and tank attacks Monday, medics said.
But as Israel intensified its air and ground operation, Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni rejected EU calls for an immediate ceasefire, saying Israel was aiming to change the “equation in this region.”
“We are fighting with terror and we are not reaching an agreement with terror,” Livni declared after talks with an EU ministerial delegation led by Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.
Israel acted to change a situation where “Hamas targets Israel whenever it likes and Israel shows restraint,” she said. “This is no longer going to be the equation in this region. When Israel is being targeted, Israel is going to retaliate.” Livni said Israel would keep on battling Hamas.
Schwarzenberg, whose country currently holds the rotating EU Presidency, repeated the bloc’s call for an immediate halt to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
“We presented the Israeli foreign minister with the view of the European Union that a ceasefire should be established as soon as possible as that rockets have to stop,” Karel Schwarzenberg told reporters in the joint media conference.
After a meeting in Ramallah with the Palestinian Authority leader, Sarkozy said he would tell Israeli leaders that “the violence must halt”. The French president called the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel “irresponsible and unforgiveable”.