GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Thousands of Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships launched a ground offensive Saturday night in Gaza, with officials saying they expected a lengthy fight after eight days of airstrikes failed to halt militant rocket attacks on Israel.
The incursion set off fierce clashes with Palestinian militants, and Gaza’s Hamas rulers vowed the coastal strip would be a “graveyard” for Israeli forces.
“This will not be easy, and it will not be short,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on national television about two hours after troops moved in.
The night sky over Gaza was lit by the flash of bullets and balls of fire from tank shells. Explosions were heard across Gaza City, the territory’s biggest city, and high- rise buildings shook from the bigger booms.
Troops with camouflage face paint marched in single file. As the ground troops moved in, Israel kept pounding Gaza with airstrikes.
F-16 warplanes hit three targets within a few minutes, including a main Hamas security compound.
Israeli troops avoid cities
Witnesses in Gaza said that in the first phase, Israeli ground forces had moved several hundred yards inside Gaza. Israeli officials said initial clashes with militants took place in open fields, and soldiers did not immediately move into crowded cities, where warfare would get much deadlier.
“We have many, many targets,” Israeli army spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich told CNN. “To my estimation, it will be a lengthy operation.”
Israeli leaders said the operation’s objective was to quell rocket and mortar fire on southern Israel, not to reoccupy Gaza or topple Hamas.
The depth and intensity will depend in part on parallel diplomatic efforts that so far haven’t yielded a truce proposal acceptable to Israel.
In the airborne phase of Israel’s onslaught, militants were not deterred from bombarding southern Israel with more than 400 rockets, including dozens that extended deeper into Israel than ever before. They fired six rockets into Israel in the first few hours after the ground push began, the military said.
“I don’t want to disillusion anybody, and residents of the south will go through difficult days,” Barak said. “We do not seek war, but we will not abandon our citizens to the ongoing Hamas attacks.”
Israel called up tens of thousands of reservists in the event Palestinian militants in the West Bank or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon decide to exploit the broad offensive in Gaza to launch attacks against Israel on other fronts.
The military said the country’s north was on high alert in case Hezbollah guerrillas decided to use its vast stockpiles of missiles against Israel. Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in the summer of 2006.
U.S. puts blame on Hamas
The Bush administration on Saturday blamed the onslaught in the Gaza strip squarely on Hamas militants but did not mention the invasion of Israeli ground troops and avoided any criticism of Israel despite mounting world outrage over the growing death toll.
A State Department official said the U.S. is working toward a cease-fire but provided no details on how this can be accomplished because the U.S. does not talk to Hamas. Spokesman Sean McCormack said a cease-fire is needed that will not allow Hamas to continue firing rockets into Israel.
McCormack said, “It’s obvious the cease-fire should take place as soon as possible,” but it has to be sustainable.
President George W. Bush was briefed Saturday afternoon on the situation in Gaza, and White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said U.S. officials are in “regular contact with the Israelis as well as officials from countries in the region and Europe.”
Asked whether the U.S. was warned before the invasion, Johndroe did not answer that question, but said: “Their ground action is part of their overall operation. We continue to make clear to them our concerns for civilians, as well as the humanitarian situation.”
Arab nations demanded Saturday that the U.N. Security Council call for an immediate cease-fire, a view echoed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
Libya circulated a draft statement to council members before emergency council consultations began. The statement expressed “serious concern at the escalation of the situation in Gaza” following Israel’s ground assault and called on Israel and Hamas “to stop immediately all military activities.”
The 15-member council met behind closed doors to discuss a proposed statement that would also call for all parties to address the humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza, which included opening border crossings.
Council diplomats said the United States opposed the statement because it was similar to a press statement issued by members after Israeli warplanes launched the offensive a week ago that was not heeded.
Israel’s bruising eight-day air campaign against Gaza began days after a six-month truce expired. Gaza health officials say the air war has killed more than 480 Palestinians. Four Israelis have been killed by rockets.
