Israeli ground troops launched the offensive last Wednesday mainly targeting the town of Jebalya in the north of the Palestinian enclave controlled by radical Islamic group Hamas. At least 400 people, including women and children, were injured in the operation.
However, despite fierce Israeli assaults, Hamas militants continued rocket and mortar attacks at border towns in southern Israel, including Sderot and Ashkelon. Three rockets hit Ashkelon on Monday morning, Israeli rescue services said, but no casualties were reported.
Israel responded with airstrikes targeting weapons manufacturing and storage facilities, a Hamas headquarters and militia groups, killing four Palestinians, all of them Hamas militants.
On Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended the U.S.-brokered peace negotiations with Israel, demanding an end to the Gaza offensive.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the excessive use of force by Israel and expressed concerns that the new outbreak of violence could hamper the peace process revived during a U.S.-hosted Middle East conference in November last year.
At the Annapolis forum, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to forge a peace deal by the end of 2008.
