An Israeli soldier was killed on Tuesday in a gunbattle with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, raising the death toll of Israeli troops to six since the Israeli ground incursion began on Saturday.
Another four soldiers, from a combined unit of the elite Golaniand Combat Engineering troops, were wounded in the morning encounter in the northern part of Gaza City, reported local news service Ynet.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli army announced that three elite soldiers and one paratroops officer were respectively killed in two fiercely fire incidents in northern Gaza overnight Monday. The former marked the biggest single death toll on the Israeli side so far in the ground operation.
Ten Israelis have been killed since Israel launched the so-called Operation Cast Lead against Gaza on Dec. 27. The other four died in rocket attacks by Gazan militants before the ground offensive.
More casualties are likely as Israeli troops are engaged in fierce fighting in densely populated urban areas in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave, where over 540 Palestinians have been killed and some 2,600 others injured.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that the assault will continue until the goal of restoring security to southern Israel is realized. He earlier told the Israeli public that such efforts might mean Israel would have to pay a heavy cost.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday said that his country would agree to a ceasefire should it guarantee an end both to anti-Israel attacks by Gazan militants and to Hamas rearming and rebuilding, and that "the sooner, the better."
Source:Xinhua
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