Battles rages in Gaza as envoys appeal for truce

The death toll in Gaza rose to at least 541 people over the 10-day offensive. Among Monday’s victims were 13 members of a family in an Israeli strike on their home in a Gaza refugee camp.

The Israeli army said many dozens of Hamas fighters had been killed since ground troops invaded on Saturday following a a week-long air blitz to end rocket attacks by Hamas on southern Israel . “Hamas has so far sustained a very heavy blow from us,but we have yet to achieve our objective,” Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said.

Hamas leaders rallied their combatants with defiant rhetoric on Monday as Israeli forces fought to secure positions in Gaza. “Thousands of fighters were waiting in every street,every alley and at every house to tackle them,” Hamas military spokesman Abu Ubaida said. He said Hamas would capture more soldiers to join one who has been held for more than two years. “Hamas will also increase its rocket strikes on Israel if the Israeli attacks on Gaza kept on,” he said.

A rocket hit the Israeli port city of Ashdod,damaging a building and wounding two people. Four Israelis have been killed by salvoes fired into Israel since the offensive began. An Israeli soldier was killed in fighting on Sunday and 48 have been wounded.

Gunbattles intensified in eastern Gaza City and in the north of the strip on Monday. Militants fired mortars and grenades and detonated mines,and claimed to have hit a troop carrier.

An Israeli spokeswoman said the air force bombed more than 30 targets,including homes of Hamas members used as weapons depots,tunnels and a suspected anti-aircraft rocket launcher. Israel’s advances into Gaza have carved the 40-km long coastal territory,home to 1.5 million people,into two zones and forces have surrounded its largest urban area,Gaza City.

Bombs hit a hospital morgue where a family was mourning a paramedic killed in an airstrike on Sunday. Three people were killed and 17 wounded. In all 29 Palestinian civilians were killed on Monday. Gaza residents were in dire need of food,medical supplies and other aid.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg,heading an EU peace mission,could offer them little comfort. “We do not have a specific plan for a ceasefire because the ceasefire as such must be concluded by the involved parties,” he said in Jerusalem.

France’s Sarkozy condemned the offensive for harming chances for peace. He met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and will later hold meetings in Israel and the Palestinian territories. But Saudi Arabia said the international community should do more to stop Israeli barbarity in its offensive.

Israel is seeking international help to bolster security along Gaza’s border to prevent Hamas from rebuilding tunnels and rearming.