WORLD> Middle East
Israeli ground forces enter Gaza in escalation
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-04 07:56


An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell towards Gaza from its position outside the central Gaza Strip January 3, 2009. Israeli artillery cannons shelled the Gaza Strip on Saturday, witnesses on both sides of the border said, heralding a possible escalation to a new tactic in more than a week of fighting.[Agencies]

Israel initially held off on a ground offensive, apparently in part because of concern about casualties among Israeli troops and because of fears of getting bogged down in Gaza.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said before the ground operation began that Israel might have no choice but to move in on the ground.

"There are targets that can be done from the air and targets that cannot," Livni told Channel 2 TV.

She said Israel had broader objectives than just trying to stop Gaza militants from firing rockets into the country's south. She told the interviewer that toppling Hamas was "a strategic Israeli objective" but said that more than one military offensive might be needed to achieve Israel's aims.

"I cannot accept a state controlled by a terror organization in Gaza," Livni said.

Israeli airstrikes intensified just as the ground operation was getting under way, and 28 Palestinians were killed. One raid hit a mosque in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, killing 13 people and wounding 33, according to a Palestinian health official.

One of the wounded worshippers, Salah Mustafa, told Al-Jazeera TV from a hospital that the mosque was packed.

"It was unbelievably awful," he said, struggling to catch his breath.

It was not immediately clear why the mosque was hit, but Israel has hit other mosques in its air campaign and said they were used for storing weapons.

Artillery fire is less accurate than attacks from the air using precision-guided munitions, raising the possibility of a higher number of civilian casualties.

An artillery shell hit a house in Beit Lahiya, killing two people and wounding five, said members of the family living there. Ambulances could not immediately reach them because of the resulting fire, they said.