GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Israeli troops battled Palestinian gunmen in a suburb of Gaza City Sunday in one of the fiercest ground battles so far as Israel's military inched toward Gaza's population centers.
A top Israeli defense official said Hamas has been badly hurt by the offensive in Gaza especialy by the deaths of senior militants and shortages of ammunition but predicted that the group would fight on.
The group "is not expected to raise a white flag," military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told the Israeli Cabinet Sunday.
The fighting in the Sheikh Ajleen neighborhood erupted before dawn and continued through the morning as Israeli infantrymen and tanks advanced toward Gaza City and its approximately 400,000 residents, Palestinian witnesses said. Hamas and the smaller militant group Islamic Jihad said they ambushed the Israelis, leading to some of the heaviest fighting since Israel sent ground forces into the coastal territory on Jan. 3.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090111/...l_palestinians
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