GUY RAZ, host:
From NPR News, it's All Things Considered. I'm Guy Raz. Israeli tanks and troops continued their push into Gaza today, effectively cutting the coastal territory in two. Israel said it killed several dozen Hamas militants, and Palestinian officials in Gaza said more than 30 civilians also died in the ground invasion that began last night. Israeli officials also said one of their soldiers was killed today and several dozen were hurt. Israel's president, Shimon Peres, rejected calls for a cease-fire.
President SHIMON PERES (Israel): Hamas needs a real and serious lesson. They are now getting it.
RAZ: NPR's Eric Westervelt reports from the Israel-Gaza border.
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ERIC WESTERVELT: Billowing smoke and the rattle and thud of machine gun and tank fire marked the day as Israeli ground forces pushed into the eastern and northern outskirts of Gaza City. Panicked civilians describe scenes of exhaustion, fear, and scarcity. Many are without power, running water, and adequate food. Most still don't venture outside. Other families have had to.
Ahmed abu Hamda says he and dozens of families were forced to abruptly flee a large apartment building on the outskirts of Gaza City when heavily armed masked militants set up firing positions on upper floors. His pregnant wife relocated to a relative's house, and he is now unable to get across town to reach her.
Mr. AHMED ABU HAMDA: I'm always worried about her. It's really difficult to reach her on the phone. All my life now came upside down. Some neighbors from the neighborhood, they told me that they are hearing some bombardment over there now, and maybe they heard that tanks, Israeli tanks, are reaching it now.
WESTERVELT: Gaza hospitals continue to struggle. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel today issued an urgent appeal for the Israeli government to open up a humanitarian corridor to facilitate the evacuation of the wounded for better medical care outside Gaza. Human Rights Watch protested that not enough supplies were reaching hospitals and that the Israeli government had, since Friday, denied access to Gaza to a Red Cross surgical medical team, citing security.
Meantime, the West Bank Palestinian leadership, which was run out of Gaza by Hamas 18 months ago, is under grassroots pressure to formally suspend peace talks with Israel over the Gaza attacks, talks that are, in reality, already flagging. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat today said talks would continue, but he urged the world to do more to secure an immediate cease-fire.
Mr. SAEB EREKAT (Palestinian Negotiator): Gaza is the most destabilized area on earth - 1.5 million people facing a dire human catastrophe, no running water, no electricity, no medical supplies. And I believe the international community should do the decent thing and should shoulder the responsibilities by stopping the Israeli attacks.
WESTERVELT: But there are few signs of that. Israeli President Shimon Peres today said it doesn't make any sense for Israel to declare a cease-fire when Hamas will just continue to fire rockets at Israel. Hamas rocket and mortar fire continued from Gaza despite the ground offensive. No Israeli civilians were seriously injured. In the rocket-battered border town of Sderot, army captain and spokesman Elie Isaacson said the ground attack would last as long as necessary to deprive militants of land and ability to launch rockets into Israel.
Mr. ELIE ISAACSON (Israeli Army Captain and Spokesman): It's going - I'd say it's going well so far. We know for a fact we've killed dozens of Hamas terrorists in exchanges of gunfire within Gaza. We are rooting out the Hamas from the rocket-launching areas. We are tracking them down and then taking them on face to face.
WESTERVELT: The Israeli army insists that it hit only Hamas targets today. Doctors in Gaza say, in fact, more than two dozen civilians were also among the dead, including women and children blown up today in Palestine Square, a commercial shopping area in Gaza City. An Israeli tank or artillery round apparently struck the market area killing five people who had dared to venture outside their homes. Shifa Hospital doctors say some 40 other civilians were also wounded in the explosion. Eric Westervelt, NPR News, on the Gaza-Israel border.