GAZA CITY, Jan 4: Tens of thousands of Israeli troops backed by tanks and artillery battled Hamas fighters in Gaza fields and roads on Sunday as the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli military aggression passed 500.

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 aggression 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.

Israel said one of its soldiers was killed by a mortar shell and about 30 were wounded.

Moawiya Hassanein, head of Gaza medical emergency services, told AFP the number of Palestinians killed since the Israeli military operation was launched on December 27 had now passed 500, including 87 children.

But he expected the death toll to mount further saying “there are many martyrs and wounded in the streets, but we have not been able to get to them.” Five members of the same family died when an Israeli tank shell hit their car near the Gaza City on Saturday, emergency services said.

Israeli troops and tanks took over areas around the Gaza City. Heavy fighting was also reported around the northern towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanun and Jabaliya.

Regular explosions shook the ground and machine gun fire echoed across the Gaza enclave, home to 1.5 million Palestinian people, which has been under an Israeli blockade for more than one year.

Hamas fighters fired mortar rounds and detonated roadside bombs in front of advancing Israeli troops, witnesses said.

But the Israeli army took control of the Salaheddine road, the main highway along the length of the enclave and caught the Gaza City in a pincer movement.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said in Tel Aviv that “the operation will be expanded and intensified as much as necessary. War is not a picnic.” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Gaza offensive had been “unavoidable” but Israel would not open a new front in the north, a veiled reference to tensions with the Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Olmert said he had ordered the army to be “extremely alert” in case “someone might think that this is his opportunity to take advantage” of the conflict in Gaza.

Israel unleashed “Operation Cast Lead” with the declared aim of ending rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza that resumed after a six-month truce ended in December.

Rocket fire over the past week has killed four people in Israel. Thirty two rockets and mortar rounds were fired across the border on Sunday and hit Sderot, Ashdod and other towns, lightly injuring three people.

Schools in southern Israel remain closed. Streets clear as soon as siren alerts of incoming rockets are sounded by authorities.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum condemned the UN Security Council action as “a farce” dominated by the United States, which has strongly supported Israel.—AFP