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The New Year in Gaza began Thursday with air strikes as Israeli jets pounded Gaza for a sixth day, while the Islamists vowed to fight to the end and the death toll from the blitz hit 400.
Israeli warplanes carried out some 20 strikes in the battered enclave overnight, the army said, after the Jewish state's security cabinet rejected international proposals of a truce in one of its deadliest-ever offensives on Gaza.
Jets pounded Hamas government buildings, rocket launching sites and tunnels used to smuggle in supplies into the territory that Israel has kept virtually sealed since the Islamists assumed power there in June 2007.
The death toll from "Operation Cast Lead," unleashed by Israel on Saturday reached 400 with nearly 2,000 people wounded, the head of Gaza emergency services Moawiya Hassanein told AFP.
The United Nations has said that at least 25 percent of those killed have been civilians.
Hamas vowed to fight "until the last breath" if Israel made good on threats to send ground troops into Gaza.
"We in Hamas are ready for all scenarios and we will fight until the last breath," senior official Mushir al-Masri told AFP late on Wednesday.
The Jewish state has been amassing tanks and personnel on the border of the territory, with Defense Minister Ehud Barak repeatedly warning of a ground assault to accompany the air raids.
In a defiant televised speech, the head of the Hamas government, Ismail Haniya, vowed Israel would be defeated.
"Our people will defeat those tanks," the head of the Hamas government Ismail Haniya vowed in a defiant televised speech late on Wednesday.
Despite international appeals for the bloodshed to end, Israel's security cabinet rejected proposals for a ceasefire on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert saying conditions were not yet ripe for a truce.
"We did not launch the Gaza operation only to end it with the same rocket firing that we had at its start," a senior official quoted Olmert as saying.
World leaders and diplomats continued to scramble to find a way to stop the operation that has sent anger spiraling in the Muslim world.
The UN Security Council began consultations on a draft resolution on the Gaza conflict proposed by Libya on behalf of a group of Arab countries, diplomats said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy would travel to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank on Monday, his office announced. In a New Year's message, Sarkozy said he will visit the Middle East in a bid to "find a roadmap towards peace."
Hamas said it would consider ceasefire proposals that include an end to the blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza since the Islamists seized power.
"If the aggression is halted unconditionally and the blockade is lifted and the passages are opened, we then can discuss all issues in a positive manner," Haniya said in his televised address.
Since the start of the offensive, Israel has hit more than 450 sites in Gaza, an overcrowded territory home to 1.5 million people sandwiched between the Jewish state and Egypt.
Gaza fighters have fired more than 250 rockets -- including some that have reached deeper than ever inside Israel -- killing three civilians and one solider and wounding several dozen people.
The bombardment has raised concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a tiny, aid-dependent territory of 1.5 million people that has been crippled by Israel's blockade.
Since the beginning of the operation, Israel has allowed the transfer of some 6,500 tons of aid into Gaza, according to the defense ministry. It was not immediately clear whether aid would be allowed in on Thursday.
PHOTO CAPTION
A map of Israel's assault on Gaza
AFP
