Friday 18 July 2014 16.30 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he had ordered the military to prepare for a possible significant expansion of the ground operation against Gaza militants.
Mr Netanyahu said air strikes alone could not deal a significant blow to the network of tunnels used by Hamas militants to stage cross-border attacks on southern Israel.
"Last night our forces began a ground operation to hit the terror tunnels crossing from Gaza into Israel's territory," he said.
"It is not possible to deal with the tunnels only from the air [so] our soldiers are doing that also on the ground."
In his remarks, Mr Netanyahu referred to an attempted attack yesterday by 13 Gaza militants who managed to infiltrate southern Israel by tunnel before being spotted by the army.
One of the Gaza militants was killed in an air strike.
The rest retreated into the tunnel, thwarting what Mr Netanyahu said would have been a "mass attack" on Israeli civilians.
Mr Netanyahu said he had only ordered the troops in after several attempts to reach a ceasefire had failed.
"We chose to launch this operation after exhausting the last options," he said.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has gone past 270 with 33 Palestinians killed in the Israeli ground offensive.
Israel's toll in the violence has risen to two, with the death of a soldier in Gaza, the army said.
The latest deaths Palestinian deaths include three people killed in Khan Yunis in the south, one man killed in Nusseirat in central Gaza and another death in a cemetery in northern Gaza, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.
Medics also found the bodies of another four people, two of them to the east of the southern city of Rafah, and another two, one a 17-year-old, in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
Earlier in the day, six people from two families were killed in Khan Yunis, as well as another three who were killed by tank fire.
Another eight people were killed in and around the northern town of Beit Hanun, among them three teenagers.
Attacks in the southern city of Rafah, which straddles the border with Egypt, claimed five lives in several different attacks, among them a five-month-old baby.
According to figures provided by the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, more than 80% of the victims in the conflict have been civilians.
At least 1,920 Palestinians have also been wounded, while four Israelis have been seriously injured.
Since the Israeli operation began on 8 July, at least 1,150 rockets fired from Gaza have struck Israel, and another 311 have been shot down by the Iron Dome air defence system, army figures say.
The Israeli ground offensive comes after ten days of bombardments from the air and sea failed to stop militants' rocket attacks.
An Israeli military spokesman said yesterday that Israel was not out to try to topple Hamas.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri responded with defiance to Israel's invasion announcement, telling Reuters: "We warn Netanyahu of the dreadful consequences of such a foolish act."
The UN Security Council is due to meet for an emergency session this afternoon following the Israeli ground operation.
The meeting was called at the request of Jordan and Turkey.
The UN said the number displaced in Gaza has 'almost doubled' in the past 24 hours.
The UN is stepping up emergency aid to Gaza due to worsening water shortages and increased fears of sewage contamination and the spread of water-borne diseases.
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