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Tens of thousands of Israeli troops backed by tanks battled Hamas fighters in Gaza fields and roads yesterday as the Palestinian death toll from the offensive to end militant rocket attacks passed 500, including 87 children.

Israeli forces surrounded the enclave’s main city and families fled other battlefield towns in packed trucks and cars to escape the biggest Israeli military operation since its 2006 war in Lebanon.

More than 45 Palestinians were killed by tank shells or missiles fired from warplanes since the ground offensive was launched on Saturday night, Gaza medics said.

Israeli troops pushed deep into Gaza yesterday with thousands of soldiers and scores of tanks battling Hamas fighters and moving toward the capital on a mission to end militant rocket attacks.

International efforts to halt the conflict floundered. The UN Security Council failed even to agree the wording of a statement on the conflict, with the United States giving strong backing to Israel while other powers criticised the offensive.

The Security Council late Saturday failed to agree on a statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after the United States had argued a return to the situation that existed before Israel’s ground invasion was unacceptable.

After nearly four hours of closed-door consultations, members of the council emerged without reaching agreement that would have asked Israel and Hamas to end eight-day hostilities.

Explosions shook the north of the Hamas-controlled enclave, home to 1.5 million people, and thick smoke covered much of the territory as the Israeli army took control of main roads.

Israeli infantry and tanks were in the former Jewish colony of Netzarim, just south of Gaza City. Heavy fighting was also reported north of the city and around the northern towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanun and Jabaliya.

Seventeen of the victims were civilians, medics said earlier, adding that some 200 people were wounded as a result of air strikes and Israeli ground fire.

Twenty people were killed in the north of the territory, two in Gaza City and one near Khan Yunis in the south, they said.

Rockets fired by Gaza militants have killed three civilians and one soldier inside Israel during the same time period.

Hamas said nine Israeli soldiers had been killed in Gaza and several more wounded in the ground invasion of the territory that began on Saturday night.

A statement early on Sunday from Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said that in monitoring Israeli military radio traffic, it learned that five soldiers had been killed.

It added later that the number had increased to nine with fatalities it could directly confirm.

One of the dead was said to be an officer.

Some 30 Israeli soldiers and “several” Hamas fighters were reported to have been wounded in the ground offensive, the army and medics said.

The Israeli army denied Hamas claims that soldiers had been killed. On Sunday, Al-Jazeera news channel in Dubai reported that one Israeli had been killed in the clashes.

Palestinian ambulances were unable to reach the scene of the fighting.

A Hamas spokesman, speaking as the ground offensive was launched, said that Gaza will become “a cemetery” for Israeli troops.

Witnesses on Sunday said that Israeli infantry units and tanks had taken control of the Salaheddine Road, the main highway along the length of the enclave, on either side of Gaza City.

Advancing troops exchanged fire with Hamas fighters, who shot off mortar rounds and detonated roadside bombs, they said, adding that Israeli forces were seen detaining people.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned ahead of a cabinet meeting Sunday that the operation would not be “simple”. “The operation will be expanded and intensified as much as necessary. War is not a picnic.”

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel is “not interested” in opening up a new front in the north of the country, in a veiled reference to tensions with the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

Olmert said he had instructed the army to be “extremely alert and prepared for any development in the event that someone might think that this is his opportunity to take advantage” of the conflict in Gaza.

Israel unleashed “Operation Cast Lead” on December 27 with the declared aim of ending rocket attacks into Israel from the territory, which had been under tight Israeli blockade for more than 18 months. The rocket attacks had resumed after the end of a six month truce.

Rocket fire from Gaza since the operation started has killed four people in Israel. More missiles hit the town of Sderot on Sunday, though no casualties were reported.

Israel’s offensive has sparked spiraling anger in the Muslim world and protests across the globe.

The UN Security Council failed to agree a statement calling for a ceasefire despite nearly four hours of closed-door consultations late on Saturday.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement that “what is happening in the Security Council is a farce that shows the level that America and the Zionist occupier dominates its decisions.”

The deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, Alejandro Wolff, said after the talks that Washington believed it was crucial “not to return to the status quo” that had allowed Hamas to fire rockets into Israel.

“The efforts we are making internationally are designed to establish a sustainable, durable ceasefire that’s respected by all,” Wolff said. “And that means no more rocket attacks. It means no more smuggling of arms.”

France led criticism of the ground invasion that Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas warned would have “grave consequences” for the region.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due in Israel on Monday for talks on a ceasefire with Olmert in Jerusalem and Abbas in Ramallah.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called the ground invasion a “dangerous military escalation” that would undermine attempts to broker a truce.

“France condemns the Israeli ground offensive against Gaza just as it condemns the continuing firing of rockets,” Kouchner said in a statement.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke with Olmert, “pressing hard for an immediate ceasefire,” a statement from Brown’s office said.

The Israeli government has called a snap general election for February 10 and the current leadership has widespread public support for its anti-Hamas offensive.

(AFP, AP)