Ground battles broke out yesterday all over the Gaza Strip between the Israeli infantry, who reached the outskirts of Gaza City, and armed men belonging to the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and all the other armed Palestinian factions. Israel's ground invasion, since it first started on Saturday evening, has left 30 Palestinians dead so far, including women and children. Meanwhile, the death toll of the entire operation has now risen to 490, with more than 2,300 people wounded. The health ministry declared Gaza a disaster zone from a health point of view. It said ambulances came to a standstill due to either the continuing bombardments or the lack of fuel. The energy authority, for its part, declared that electricity had been cut off all over the Gaza Strip as the only generator had been targeted by warplanes, which puts the lives of critically-injured patients in danger. Nevertheless, the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that he would prevent a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and that he would let food and medicine supplies into the area. In a seemingly implicit message to Hezbollah, he also said Israel had no interest in opening a new front in Lebanon. Meanwhile, al-Qassam Brigades – Hamas's military wing - warned that Israel would "pay a very high price" for its ground offensive. Leading figure Ismail Radwan said Gaza would be the graveyard of Israeli soldiers. Hamas said in a statement that nine Israeli soldiers had been killed and two imprisoned, a helicopter had been hit and a tank had been blown up through a B29 grenade. Israel, though, denied this categorically, as it admitted the death of just one soldier and the injury of 30 others during the clashes. For their part, al-Qassam Brigades said it had fired a Grad rocket on what it described as the Israeli army's biggest ground basis in the South. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council failed to agree on a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire because of Washington. This came at an emergency meeting convened by Libya few hours after the internationally-condemned Israeli offensive. The Libyan Ambassador Jadallah el-Talhi said he regretted the failure to reach an agreement at the Security Council session. He put the blame for this failure on the US, while Washington said the resolution text was biased as it did not mention Hamas's rockets fired on Israel. In the meantime, further angry demonstrations were staged across the world to protest against the war and the silence of the international community and the Arab World. In Ramallah (West Bank), the Palestinians took once more to the streets. A young Palestinian demonstrator was shot in the head by the Israeli forces during the protests and died. Demonstrations were also staged in Tel Aviv and other countries worldwide, such as Turkey, Germany, Australia, Indonesia, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan and Morocco.
