Palestinian death toll exceeds 1,000

Gaza: As Israeli forces continued to battle Hamas in the Gaza Strip's main city early Wednesday the death toll from the war exceeded 1,000.

According to Palestinian medical officials the death toll had risen to 1, 010.

With the war now in its 19th day, witnesses said there were far fewer air strikes on Gaza City and other parts of the north than on the previous night, but that heavy fighting still continued.

One Palestinian was killed and another 20 wounded when an air strike destroyed a house in the city's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, he quoted medics and witnesses as saying. It was not immediately known why the house was hit.

At least 18 rockets were fired into Israel on Tuesday, according to a police spokesman. The number of rocket attacks has been cut to around 20 a day from more than 70 before the war, the military said. About 500 rockets and 200 mortar shells have been fired since the start of the operation on December 27.

Thirteen Israelis have died, nine in combat, and one was critically injured last night, according to the army.

Israel on Tuesday complained to the UN about Hamas's use of civilians in the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev wrote that Hamas is using civilians as human shields, and is staging attacks from inside schools, mosques, homes and hospitals.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrives from New York today on a Middle East shuttle mission that will take him to Egypt, Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Syria to promote the Security Council's call for a truce.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former European Union envoy for the Middle East, is also in the region pushing for a cease-fire. Damascus-based Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk told Al- Jazeera television that while the organization had “serious reservations'' about the Egyptian initiative, he believed changes could be introduced that would lead to its acceptance.

Operations intensify

The Israeli army intensified its ground operations around Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinians and local radio stations said.

Palestinian residents said they witnessed the fiercest gun battles between Israeli soldiers and Gaza militants since the beginning of the offensive. Israeli aircraft were called in to strike gunmen spotted with anti-tank missiles, the army said.

"Tanks are shelling Palestinian fighters, who are responding with RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)," a correspondent said. "There is heavy machine-gun fire on both sides."