Israel threatens to invade Gaza

Gaza was faced with the threat on a full-scale Israeli invasion tonight after a barrage of Palestinian rocket attacks hit border towns.

Gaza is facing the threat of a full-scale Israeli invasion tonight after a barrage of Palestinian rocket attacks hit border towns.

The much-battered town of Sderot has taken the brunt of the offensive, but longer-range Iranian rockets have also hit 120,000-population Ashkelon several times.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak said that the attacks, "demand an Israeli retaliation".

His deputy Matan Vilnai went further saying Israel had "no other choice" but to invade Gaza, which Israeli troops and settlers evacuated more than two years ago.

"As the rocket fire grows, and the range increases… they are bringing upon themselves a greater 'shoah' because we will use all our strength in every way we deem appropriate, whether in airstrikes or on the ground," Mr Vilnai said.

"We're getting close to using our full strength."

The Hebrew word "shoah" is most often associated with the Holocaust, but Israelis use it to describe all sorts of disasters.

The Israeli military has completed its preparations for a major ground offensive and notified the government it is ready to move when the order is given, defence officials said.

Ashkelon, a beach town 11 miles north of Gaza, had been sporadically targeted in the past but never suffered direct hits or significant damage.

Aside from its relatively large population, the city is also home to a hospital, a power station, hotels and the European force that used to monitor a major Gaza-Israel crossing before Islamic Hamas militants violently seized control of Gaza in June.

After yesterday's rocket attacks Israel activated its "Code Red" warning system there. It has previously used it only in communities much closer to Gaza.

The system picks up incoming rockets and sounds an alarm in the target area, giving residents less than a minute to scramble for cover.

Israel hesitated to activate the system in Ashkelon because officials did not want to send 120,000 people running for shelter every time a rocket was launched in the direction of the city.

Israeli troops and tanks were in action today against rocket squads firing from northern Gaza, and Israeli aircraft continued to pummel targets in the coastal territory.

A Palestinian rocket hit a house in Sderot, slightly wounding one person. Another fell short and landed on a house in northern Gaza, wounding four civilians.

The increased violence that began on Wednesday with Israel's killing of two rocket masterminds has killed 32 Palestinians, including 15 civilians, among them eight children. The youngest was a six-month-old boy.

An Israeli man was killed in a rocket attack on Sderot on Wednesday.

Israel blamed the high Palestinian civilian death toll on rocket squads operating within civilian areas of Gaza, ruled by the Islamic militant Hamas.

Meanwhile tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets today to bury their dead and protest the Israeli attacks.

The prime minister of Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, who like other Hamas officials has been in hiding for weeks for fear of an Israeli assassination attempt, emerged for prayers. Hamas, he told a crowd of 2,000, will not be cowed.

"You are mistaken if you thought that targeting buildings, ministries and police stations is going to stop our work," he said, directing his comments at Israel. "We will work under trees, in tents and in the streets."