Key Hamas leader killed in Gaza
One of the top Hamas leaders in Gaza has been killed in an air strike, Hamas and Israeli officials have said.
Said Siyam, the Hamas interior minister, was killed in an air raid on his brother’s home near Gaza City.
Earlier, Israeli troops and tanks moved closer into the heart of Gaza City, prompting fierce gun battles with fighters from Hamas.
The UN’s relief agency, Unrwa, said part of its HQ in Gaza caught fire after being hit by Israeli shells.
Senior figure
As interior minister, Mr Siyam controlled thousands of Hamas security troops in Gaza and was said to be widely feared.
His son and brother were also killed in the strike, along with two other Hamas officials – the interior ministry’s security director Saleh Abu Sharkh and the local leader of the Hamas militia, Mahmoud Abu Watfah.
Mr Siyam is one of the most senior Hamas leaders killed in the 20-day Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip.
He became a member of the “collective leadership” of the militant group in 2004 after Sheikh Yassin and Abdel-Aziz Rantissi were assassinated by Israel.
His death came at the end of a day of fierce clashes which also saw the UN compound in Gaza City shelled by Israeli troops.
Unrwa spokesman Christopher Gunness said three of the agency’s employees were hurt in the attack.
About 700 people were sheltering in the compound at the time, he said, and the fire burnt through stocks of food and medicine, approaching five full fuel tanks.
Mr Olmert met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and apologised for the attack, but said Palestinian fighters had been firing from the UN site.
“It is absolutely true that we were attacked from that place, but the consequences are very sad and we apologise for it,” he said.
“I don’t think it should have happened and I’m very sorry.”
The coastal enclave came under heavy fire from the east in the early morning as soldiers and tanks pushed into Gaza City.
Witnesses said they saw soldiers on foot marching behind bulldozers and tanks.
The advancing troops came under fire from fighters from Hamas and other Palestinian factions positioned on rooftops and balconies, said the BBC’s Rushdi Abualouf.
The building where he lives in the Gaza City suburb of Tel al-Hawa was surrounded by Israeli tanks at one point, he said, and several shells hit the lower floors.
Columns of thick smoke rose into the sky over Gaza.
A total of 1,083 people in Gaza have now been killed since the Israeli operation began, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Thursday – 70 higher than the previous day’s figure. Nearly a third of the dead are children, Gaza medics said.
Thirteen Israelis – including three civilians – have died.
Reports said at least 15 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel since the early morning, injuring eight people in Beersheba.
Speaking to the media after meeting Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv, Mr Ban repeated previous calls for an immediate ceasefire, and said the suffering in Gaza was a “dire humanitarian crisis” that had reached an “unbearable point”.
In other developments:
* The UK Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown says the British government “utterly” condemns the attack on the UN headquarters in Gaza. Fierce criticism also came from the French foreign ministry
* Two hospitals in Gaza City are hit by shellfire: the al-Quds hospital in Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, scene of heavy fighting, and a Red Crescent hospital, the Red Cross says
* The Shurouq tower block in Gaza City, which houses the offices of the Reuters news agency and several other media organisations, is hit by an explosion, injuring a journalist for the Abu Dhabi television channel
* Leaders of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council are to meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss the crisis. The Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, said the meeting was convened because of what he called Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people
‘Detailed vision’
Meanwhile, Hamas and Israeli negotiators were said to be making progress towards a ceasefire agreement as they held separate meetings with Egyptian mediators in Cairo.
Egypt has been leading efforts to broker a ceasefire that could include a peacekeeping force being deployed along its border with Gaza to prevent the smuggling of weapons.
On Wednesday, Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil said his movement had presented Egyptian negotiators with a “detailed vision” of how to bring about a ceasefire.
Hamas, which controls Gaza, has said any ceasefire agreement would have to include a halt to Israeli attacks, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the opening of border crossings to end the blockade of Gaza.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said there was “momentum” to the talks.
“Ultimately we want to see a long-term sustainable quiet in the south, a quiet that’s going to be based on the total absence of all hostile fire from Gaza into Israel, and an internationally supported mechanism that will prevent Hamas from rearming,” Mr Regev said.
Israel launched its offensive on the Gaza Strip on 27 December and has refused to allow international journalists to enter Gaza without supervision, making it to independently confirm casualty figures.
The offensive has provoked widespread international condemnation at the cost in civilian casualties and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the coastal enclave.
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