Israel´s Gaza ground assault sent the Palestinian death toll soaring to 300 as UN chief Ban Ki-moon headed to the region Saturday to bolster efforts to clinch a truce.
The new peace effort came as eight members of a single family were killed in Israeli tank fire in northern Gaza, after Israel warned it was poised to broaden its ground operations.
In the face of Israel´s land, sea and air offensive, the Islamist movement Hamas remained defiant and warned the Jewish state it would “drown in the swamp of Gaza.”
The UN said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would fly to the region Saturday in a bid to end the violence
In Gaza, after a relative lull during the day, violence picked up again in the evening, with intensifying tank shelling and air strikes killing more than a dozen people.
I among them were eight members of a single family including 4 children were killed by tank fire on their home in northern Gaza.
