Israeli troops and tanks split the Gaza Strip and ringed its main city on Sunday in an offensive against Hamas that has killed 500 Palestinians, including a growing number of civilians.
Israeli tanks poured shells and machinegun-fire into suspected militant positions and war planes struck as Hamas fighters fought back with mortars and rockets.
Hamas kept up rocket attacks against southern Israel, defying efforts by the Middle East's most powerful army to achieve Israeli leaders' declared aim of removing the threat of cross-border salvoes.
"It's a very very interesting, demanding, tough first 24 hours right now, and we are committed to follow through to continue as long as needed to achieve our objectives," Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said as he met Tony Blair, the envoy of powers sponsoring Middle East peace talks.
European Union foreign policy chiefs launched a mission to seek a ceasefire in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip but acknowledged they faced a difficult task.
At least 42 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed on Sunday as Israeli shells slammed into houses and Gaza's main shopping district, medical sources said.
Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians in the Gaza Strip as "human shields", saying the Islamist group has been firing rockets at Israeli towns from densely populated areas and storing weapons in homes and mosques.
Among the Palestinian casualties were five civilians killed and 40 wounded when tank shells slammed into Gaza City's main shopping area. Two children were dismembered by another blast from a tank, medical workers said.
A foreign Red Crescent doctor said: "Civilians are being killed ... shells are severing people's legs, shrapnel is going into people's bodies and into people's homes, a lot of people are being cut down. Everyone is terrified."
The head of emergency services in the Gaza Strip told Al Jazeera television that three Palestinian rescue workers were killed by Israeli fire on Sunday, raising to seven the total number of medical staff who have died in nine days of bloodshed.
The Saturday night invasion of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip followed a week of Israeli bombardments from land, sea and air -- the most serious Israeli-Palestinian fighting in decades.
The total Palestinian death toll tallied by Gaza medical officials in Israel's "Operation Cast Lead" rose to 512. A UN agency said at least a quarter of the dead were civilians. A Palestinian human rights group put the figure at 40 per cent.
One Israeli soldier was killed and 32 were wounded in the ground offensive, Israel said. Four Israelis have been killed by the Hamas rocket strikes since Dec. 27.
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