News desk :Israeli tanks and bulldozers dug in across a mile-wide strip of Gaza’s eastern frontier on Saturday, and Palestinian officials said military strikes had killed more than 316 people, most of them civilians.Israel sent in ground forces on Thursday after 10 days of air and naval barrages failed to stop rocket fire from Gaza.Israeli air strikes killed 20 people in Gaza on Saturday.Meanwhile UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon headed to the region to bolster truce efforts.The new peace push came as Israel stood poised to intensify a ground operation inside the besieged Palestinian territory aimed at stemming rocket fire by militants on day 12 of its bloodiest conflict since 2009.The United States urged its Israeli ally to do more to limit the high civilian death toll from the operation while supporting the Jewish state’s right to defend itself.President Barack Obama said Washington was “deeply concerned about the risks of further escalation and the loss of more innocent life.”He added that Washington was “hopeful” that Israel would operate “in a way that minimises civilian casualties”. But Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said the army was “expanding the ground phase of the operation.” “There will be moments of hardship,” he warned in a briefing to the military, anticipating further Israeli casualties.There have been two Israeli deaths so far, one a civilian and one a soldier killed by friendly fire.Military spokesman Lieutenant General Peter Lerner told journalists on Saturday that during the past 24 hours the military had seized 13 tunnels into Israel.In the face of Israel’s land, sea and air offensive, Islamist movement Hamas, which is the dominant power in Gaza, has remained defiant as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas travelled to Egypt and Turkey for truce talks.An early morning air strike outside a mosque in the southern city of Khan Yunis killed seven people on Saturday, including a woman, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.Later raids killed another 13, bringing the death toll so far to 316 Palestinians and two Israelis.Some 2,250 Palestinians and several Israelis have been wounded. The UN said secretary general Ban Ki-moon would leave for the region on Saturday in a bid to end the violence. Ban would help Israelis and Palestinians “in coordination with regional and international actors, end the violence and find a way forward,” under secretary general for political affairs Jeffrey Feltman told the Security Council.In Beit Lahiya, the military said, troops raided a house and killed a gunman after he wounded three soldiers. The Palestinian faction PRC said it ambushed the Israeli army unit. Islamic Jihad, another faction, said it was fighting alongside Hamas. The escalation of hostilities, and its toll on Gaza’s 1.8 million Palestinians as well as on Israelis jarred by rockets that have reached Tel Aviv and beyond, have spurred so-far fruitless truce bids by Western powers and regional go-betweens. Egypt has no plans to revise its ceasefire proposal, which Hamas has rejected, Cairo’s foreign minister said on Saturday.
