Israeli tanks cut Gaza in half
Updated on 04 January 2009
The Israeli operation has effectively split Gaza in two, reportedly from the Karni border crossing to the Mediterranean Sea.
Twenty-four hours on from the invasion, Israel's troops and tanks have tightened their grip on Gaza, killing at least 42 Palestinians, many of them civilians.
Israeli Defence Forces say their assault by air, sea and land continues - the purpose, to destroy Hamas missile launching sites.
The reality, those missiles, one of which hit a house in the town of Sderot, continue to be fired from Gaza and the number of civilians killed and injured grows every day.
Since moving over the border last night, Israeli forces have been engaged in heavy fighting around Gaza City, and the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and the Jabaliya refugee camp.
South of Gaza City, it is reported that 150 tanks have surrounded the former Jewish settlement of Netzarim.
More than 500 people have now been killed and as the fighting intensifies, the Israelis confirm they have suffered their first military casualty.
America, the main supplier of their arsenal, has blocked any United Nations moves to bring about a ceasefire.
Aid agencies are warning of "grave shortages" of food and water.
Foreign journalists have been banned from Gaza. Our diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Rugman joins us from the Israeli-Gaza border.
Our report contains some distressing images.
Isaac Herzog
Alex Thomson spoke to a member of the Israeli security cabinet, Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog, who was in Jerusalem.
He began by asking him, in the light of yesterday's bombing of a mosque and our report tonight of two children killed on the roof of a house, just what was Israel doing?
Sami Shafi
Just before we came on air Alex Thomson spoke to Sami Abdel Shafi, who is inside the Gaza Strip. He is a businessman unaffiliated to the Hamas movement.
