Israel says it has expanded its ground offensive in Gaza and militants keep up rocket fire with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to end the fighting. (Reuters) 
 
 Israel says it has expanded its ground offensive in Gaza and militants keep up rocket fire with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to end the fighting. (Reuters) 
 
 Hamas militants intensified their attacks on Israeli forces Saturday, killing two soldiers on Israeli soil and attacking others with antitank missiles, machine guns, even an explosives-laden donkey, apparently undaunted by Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip. 
 
 As the conflict stretched into its 12th day, the militants’ resilience seemed to upend the narrative provided by Israel of a Hamas severely weakened by the Israeli ground offensive, airstrikes, artillery barrages and the ongoing destruction of its tunnel network. 
 
 In their most audacious attack Saturday, Hamas fighters dressed in Israeli army uniforms slipped from central Gaza into Israel through a tunnel and attacked an Israeli army patrol, killing two soldiers and injuring two others. The army returned fire, killing one militant and forcing the rest back through the tunnel into the Palestinian territory. 
 
 In all, three Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive began Thursday night. 
 
 Hamas, military analysts said, is much better prepared militarily than in its two previous conflicts with Israel, in 2009 and 2012. Since then, the Islamist group has invested millions in building large quantities of short- and long-range rockets, as well as acquiring other sophisticated weaponry. 
 
 1 of 38 Full Screen Autoplay Close July 18, 2014 July 17, 2014 Thursday Skip Ad × Israel launches ground invasion of Gaza View Photos Backed by artillery shells and airstrikes, assault continues. Caption Backed by artillery shells and airstrikes, assault continues. July 19, 2014 Israeli soldiers patrol near the Israeli-Gaza border. Two Israeli soldiers were killed early Saturday during an attack by Hamas militants, Israel’s military said.The Palestinian death toll from the conflict rose Saturday to more than 330, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 At the same time, Hamas’s political and economic situation is in its worst state since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007. It no longer has the support of Iran, Syria or Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia because of its refusal to back President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot, is no longer in power. Much of the Arab world, in fact, no longer supports the militants, crippling them financially. 
 
 “They are really stressed. They have to work very hard to achieve meaningful or strategic developments,” said Kobi Michael, former head of the Palestinian desk at Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs. 
 
 “They are much more violent and extremist than in previous campaigns,” he added. 
 
 In a second attempt Saturday to enter Israel through their tunnels, Hamas militants were found carrying handcuffs and tranquilizers in an apparent attempt to kidnap soldiers, Israel’s military said, adding that the militants were killed. In a third incident, a militant emerged from a concealed tunnel entrance in southern Gaza and began firing at soldiers. 
 
 Saturday’s attempted infiltrations into Israel, coming as thousands of Israeli soldiers focus on dismantling the Hamas tunnel network along Gaza’s border, suggested that the number of tunnels could be far greater than believed. If Hamas continues to use them to kill and injure Israeli soldiers or target civilians in Israel, it could prompt Israel to widen its ground offensive and push deeper into Gaza, swelling civilian casualties. 
 
 The Palestinian death toll from the conflict rose Saturday to more than 330, including about 60 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. An additional 2,200 have been injured. The United Nations estimates that about 80 percent of the casualties are civilians, many of them children. 
 
 More than 60,000 Palestinians are seeking refuge in U.N. shelters. By Saturday, large swaths of the coastal enclave, including Gaza City, had been without electricity for 24 hours. Residents worry about their water supply, since they need electrical power to pump water to their rooftop tanks. 
 
 Israeli tanks dig into Gaza's eastern frontier, as casualty numbers rise on both sides amid fresh fighting. (Reuters) 
 
 Citing its concern about reports of severe shortages of medicines, Israel briefly opened its Erez crossing into Gaza to allow medical supplies in. 
 
 Israeli troops and Gaza militants engaged repeatedly in exchanges of small-arms fire.A midday gun battle near the no-man’s land between the fence and populated areas in central Gaza left several Israeli soldiers injured. An overnight attack by a militant near Beit Lahiya wounded three Israeli soldiers. And in southern Gaza, three more soldiers were injured when an explosive device planted by Hamas militants detonated. 
 
 “The resistance is roughly as we were expecting, maybe a little bit lower,” a senior Israeli military official told reporters Saturday, speaking on the condition of anonymity in accord with military protocol. “We expect Hamas to fight.” 
 
 In one incident, militants strapped a donkey with explosives and pushed it in the direction of Israeli soldiers, Israel’s military said, adding that soldiers “engaged the donkey and it exploded at a safe distance” without injuring any troops. 
 
 Much of Hamas’s ammunition and weaponry has been smuggled in from Iran or Sudan, through tunnels that stretched from Egypt into Gaza, according to Israeli intelligence officials. So were raw materials used by Hamas engineers to assemble sophisticated homemade rockets and other weapons. There are also reports that Hamas has acquired drones. 
 
 But since the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood last year, Egypt’s military has destroyed most, if not all, of the tunnels entering Gaza and closed off its border. 
 
 A high-ranking Israeli intelligence officer told reporters in a briefing Saturday that Hamas’s fighters were unable to match Israel’s firepower and that Israel was “using its power on the ground to ruin those tunnels.” He said Hamas’s weapons arsenal had been reduced by about half and that the Israeli army “believes that it has caused a lot of damage” to the group. 
 
 Still, as they tangled with Israeli troops on the ground, Hamas and other militant factions continued to fire a steady barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel. 
 
 Since Israel’s ground offensive began Thursday night, some 160 rockets have been fired, Israel’s military said, saying the number represented a “limited decline.” 
 
 “Not a big change, but the numbers are smaller than in the past couple of days,” said Capt. Eytan Buchman, an Israeli Army spokesman. 
 
 In southern Israel, though, a Hamas rocket killed a Bedouin man — the second Israeli civilian killed in the conflict — and badly injured an infant girl Saturday, said officials with Magen David Adom, Israel’s first aid agency. Twenty-nine people were slightly injured in the attack. 
 
 Sirens rang over communities in southern Israel all day. 
 
 During the ground offensive, Israeli troops have attacked more than 300 Hamas targets, including 112 command centers and 95 rocket launchers, the military said, and have found 13 tunnels from Gaza into Israel, with 31 openings. 
 
 In Gaza, evacuees watched from the top floor of an elementary school northeast of Khan Younis, one of the enclave’s hardest-hit areas, as round after round of Israeli tank and artillery shells fell a mile or two away. 
 
 Ten men gathered in front of a grocery store were killed before dawn when an Israeli missile struck the pavement. Small BB-size pieces of shrapnel flew from the explosion and flecked the walls with pinpoint holes. 
 
 The men’s funerals were sponsored by Hamas and Fatah, the other leading Palestinian party. Their bodies were draped in the flags of their movements, while religious and martial music blared. 
 
 Sanna Siri — whose sons Mohammad, 17, and Yahiva, 20, were killed — cried out to God and cursed the Israelis minutes after the funeral procession left her home. 
 
 “My sons went to the heavens as angels,” Siri said. She called the Israelis “pigs” and said she hoped they suffer. 
 
 Booth reported from Gaza City. ||||| GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and battled Gaza militants on the second day of an open-ended ground operation Saturday, as the Palestinian death toll climbed past 330 and diplomats scrambled to revive cease-fire efforts. 
 
 An Israeli armored personnel carrier moves near the Israel and Gaza border, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Israel pounded Hamas rocket launchers, uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and engaged... (Associated Press) 
 
 EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT -In this Friday, July 18, 2014 photo, Palestinians gather around the body of Ahmed Barnasawi, 22, at the Shifa hospital's morgue as workers prepare him for burial, in Gaza City,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Palestinian mourners gather around the lifeless body of one year-old Rizk Hayek, who was killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during his funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Relatives say... (Associated Press) 
 
 Palestinian relatives mourn for Qasim Alwan, 4, and Imad Alwan, 6, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. The brothers were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell. Relatives say the... (Associated Press) 
 
 Palestinian relatives mourn for Qasim Alwan, 4, and Imad Alwan, 6, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. The brothers were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell. Relatives say the... (Associated Press) 
 
 Israeli forces' flares light up the night sky in the northern Gaza Strip, early Saturday, July 19, 2014. Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza on Friday to destroy rocket launching sites and tunnels,... (Associated Press) 
 
 A Palestinian child runs on debris from a destroyed house, following an overnight Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza strip, Saturday, July 19, 2014. A Gaza health official says the death... (Associated Press) 
 
 Palestinian relatives mourn for Qasim Alwan, 4, and Imad Alwan, 6, who were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Relatives say the tank shell... (Associated Press) 
 
 Palestinian relatives mourn for Qasim Alwan, 4, and Imad Alwan, 6, who were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Relatives say the tank shell... (Associated Press) 
 
 A man takes a photo with his mobile phone of the lifeless bodies of Qasim Alwan, 4, Imad Alwan, 6, and Rizk Hayek, 1, who were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during their funeral in Gaza City,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Palestinians carry the lifeless bodies of Qasim Alwan, 4, Imad Alwan, 6, who were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Relatives say the... (Associated Press) 
 
 Israeli armor is seen through dust near the Israel and Gaza border, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Israel pounded Hamas rocket launchers, uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and engaged in gunbattles... (Associated Press) 
 
 A Palestinian child walks on debris from a destroyed house, following an overnight Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza strip, Saturday, July 19, 2014. A Gaza health official says the death... (Associated Press) 
 
 Palestinian inspects a ruble of a destroyed house of Qasim Alwan, 4, Imad Alwan, 6, after it was hit by an Israeli tank shell on Friday in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. The brothers were killed... (Associated Press) 
 
 Israeli armored personnel carriers move along the Israel and Gaza border, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Israel pounded Hamas rocket launchers, uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and engaged in... (Associated Press) 
 
 The Israeli military said it had severely diminished the arsenal of Hamas, the Islamic militant group ruling Gaza, but the militants have continued to fire rockets. 
 
 In the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials reported intensified Israeli airstrikes, shelling and numerous civilian casualties. Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said the new round of strikes raised the death toll from the 12-day offensive to more than 330 Palestinians, many of them civilians and nearly a fourth of them under the age of 18. 
 
 In Israel, a Gaza rocket killed a man near the southern city of Dimona and wounded four people, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, marking the second Israeli civilian casualty from the fighting. An Israeli soldier was killed after the start of the ground operation, likely from friendly fire. 
 
 The Israeli military said during its first 24 hours on the ground in Gaza troops discovered 13 tunnels into Israel — some as deep as 30 meters (yards) — that could be used to carry out attacks. Israel says it launched the offensive to deal with that threat. On Saturday, the military said it thwarted a second infiltration attempt through just such a tunnel, killing one militant and forcing the others to return to Gaza. Two soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants in the firefight, the army said. 
 
 The military also said it has hit 2,350 targets in Gaza, including 1,100 rocket launchers, during the 12 days of fighting. Militants have fired more than 1,600 rockets since July 8. 
 
 "We have struck hard on the two main strategic assets of Hamas: the rockets and these tunnels," Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said. 
 
 Israel says it has encountered little resistance on the ground so far, and has killed about 20 militants in sporadic gunbattles. Three soldiers were wounded in overnight fighting, one seriously, the military said. 
 
 In one case, it said troops encountered a man who appealed for medical assistance before pulling out grenades and trying to hurl them at soldiers. He was shot dead, authorities said. Troops also encountered a donkey with explosives strapped to it. 
 
 Israel launched the ground operation late Thursday after its air campaign on the Hamas-ruled territory failed to halt the unrelenting rocket fire. The rate of Palestinian casualties has risen since the ground offensive began — Al-Kidra said more than 90 Palestinians have since been killed. 
 
 Casualties could quickly mount further if the military moves further into urban areas. 
 
 Some 50,000 Palestinians already are staying in United Nations shelters, according to UNRWA, the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians. 
 
 Early Saturday, Israeli tank fire killed at least five members of the Al Zawaydi family at their home in Beit Lahiya, including two children. In a separate incident, tank shell fire killed three members of the Hamooda family in their home, among them two children. 
 
 In Gaza City, two boys and a 1-year-old infant neighbor were killed Friday evening following the break of the Ramadan fast. On Saturday, at least two of the bodies were carried by somber relatives during a funeral procession in Gaza City. 
 
 A neighbor described the damage to the home as a "world turned upside down." 
 
 "The blood is filling the place everywhere. Small kids, it's a shame, they're kids," Amer al-Jumaasi said. 
 
 An Egyptian truce proposal was rejected by Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and has demanded the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade as part of any cease-fire agreement. 
 
 Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri on Saturday repeated a call for the two sides to adopt its cease-fire initiative, saying it is the only offer on the table, despite efforts from Hamas backers Turkey and Qatar to broker a deal. 
 
 "This initiative still presents the chance for the two sides to cease fire, ending the bloodshed," he said. "It meets the needs of both sides. We will continue to propose it. We hope both sides accept it." 
 
 In a fresh effort to broker a truce, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was to leave Saturday for the Middle East to help mediate the Gaza conflict. A cease-fire is "indispensable" for urgently needed humanitarian efforts to succeed, the undersecretary-general for political affairs Jeffrey Feltman told an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Friday. 
 
 Israeli officials have said the offensive could last up to two weeks. The military reported making steady progress but said dozens of tunnels remain and would not give a time frame for its operation. 
 
 Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, visited troops on the Gaza border early Saturday and said "a strategic national patience is necessary" to complete the mission. 
 
 "Hamas and other terror organizations have been hit hard, painfully and extensively," he added. 
 
 But Gaza militants have remained defiant despite the heavy death toll. 
 
 "The Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip will not surrender to the enemy and will not raise the white flag," Ziad Nakhala, a leader in the Islamic Jihad militant group, told a Palestinian radio station. "We are open to all possibilities as long as the enemy does not respond to the demands of the resistance." 
 
 Hamas has survived Israeli offensives in the past, including a major three-week ground operation in January 2009 and another weeklong air offensive in 2012. It now controls an arsenal of thousands of rockets, including long-range projectiles, and has built a system of underground bunkers. 
 
 But Hamas is weaker than it was during the previous two offensives, with little international or even regional support from its main allies, Turkey and Qatar. Protests against the offensive took place Friday in Turkey, Jordan and the West Bank. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Heller reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Yousur Alhlou in Jerusalem, Sarah El Deeb in Cairo and Lefteris Pitarakis in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Families are on the run in Gaza, reports Lyse Doucet; Quentin Sommerville in Israel says its tanks are on the move 
 
 The Israeli military has begun a ground offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, stepping up its 11-day-old military operation. 
 
 Troops and tanks were sent into Gaza to deal "a significant blow to Hamas", Israel said. 
 
 A Hamas spokesman said Israel would "pay a high price" for its actions. 
 
 Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the invasion after days of intensive rocket fire and air strikes between the two sides. 
 
 Gaza's health ministry said 24 Palestinians had been killed and 200 injured since the ground offensive began on Thursday night. 
 
 A five-month-old child was among the dead, Palestinian medics told AFP news agency. Israel said it had killed 14 "terrorists" overnight. 
 
 Israel meanwhile suffered its first military fatality, with the death of a soldier during the invasion, it said. 
 
 Some 258 Palestinians - three-quarters of them civilians - have died since the start of the wider Israeli operation on 8 July, officials in Gaza say. 
 
 An Israeli civilian was killed from mortar fire, and several Israelis have been seriously injured, Israeli medics say. 
 
 'Heavy clashes' 
 
 Announcing the ground offensive, the Israeli military said: "Following 10 days of Hamas attacks by land, air and sea, and after repeated rejections of offers to de-escalate the situation, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has initiated a ground operation within the Gaza Strip." 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Lyse Doucet was among the journalists and residents evacuated from an area of Gaza 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "Clearly this is a major escalation of this conflict," reports Quentin Sommerville in Tel Aviv 
 
 It said the goal was to "establish a reality in which Israeli residents can live in safety and security without continuous indiscriminate terror, while striking a significant blow to Hamas' terror infrastructure". 
 
 In Gaza City overnight, plumes of black smoke could be seen from the border area where Israeli troops were operating, AP news agency reported. 
 
 At the scene: Paul Adams, BBC News, Gaza City 
 
 It's hard to get a detailed picture, since the main focus of Israeli activity is some distance from downtown Gaza. But it's clear this is not yet a full-scale ground invasion. 
 
 Areas in the north and south of the Gaza Strip came under heavy bombardment overnight, but ground operations are so far limited. An Israeli military spokesman told us that troops had destroyed tunnels along the border. 
 
 He also confirmed that troops and armour remain just inside a largely unpopulated area in the north. 
 
 The Israeli military is testing the water, gauging the level of opposition before deciding whether or not to move deeper inside the Gaza Strip. The death of one of its own soldiers, at this early stage, will have come as a warning of the dangers ahead. 
 
 But Prime Minister Netanyahu seems determined to inflict greater damage on Hamas and that could mean sending his troops into densely populated areas. This will be dangerous for them, and potentially devastating for any Palestinian civilians in the way. 
 
 Israel said the initial phase was aimed at targeting tunnels Hamas has dug under the border with Israel to use in attacks. 
 
 On Wednesday 13 militants infiltrated into Israel through a tunnel aiming to attack a kibbutz, Israeli officials said. The Israeli military said it killed at least one of the militants, while the others retreated through the tunnel. 
 
 Reuters news agency said Palestinians reported heavy clashes along the length of the eastern border, as well as in the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Palestinian militants fire missiles at Israel amid Israeli air strikes 
 
 Military spokesman Gen Moti Almoz warned residents of Gaza to evacuate areas in which the army was operating. "This operation will be extended as much as necessary," he said. 
 
 Israel approved the drafting of 18,000 more reservists on Thursday evening, bringing the total of extra troops called up since 8 July to 65,000. 
 
 Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said that the Israeli ground operation was "destined to failure". 
 
 "What the occupier Israel failed to achieve through its air and sea raids, it will not be able to achieve with a ground offensive", he said. 
 
 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the ground operation would lead to "more bloodshed" and called on Israel to stop. 
 
 Mr Abbas, whose Fatah party recently agreed to a unity government with Hamas, was meeting Egyptian officials in Cairo amid efforts to negotiate a truce. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Are Israeli strike warnings effective? The BBC examines footage from both sides 
 
 The BBC's Kevin Connolly in Jerusalem says it is possible that with the ground invasion Israel is seeking to improve its military position in advance of any deal, but that more probably it has concluded that a ceasefire at the moment in unlikely. 
 
 Israel says it has carried out more than 1,960 attacks on Gaza since 8 July, while militants have fired some 1,380 rockets at Israel. It says more than 50 rockets have been fired at Israel since the ground operation began. 
 
 The UN says at least 1,370 homes have been destroyed in Gaza and more than 18,000 people displaced in recent hostilities. 
 
 The ground offensive follows attempts in Cairo to negotiate a new ceasefire. 
 
 There was a temporary ceasefire on Thursday to allow Palestinians to stock up on supplies and aid workers to distribute water, food and hygiene kits. 
 
 The truce lasted for five hours, although both sides reported violations.
– With day two of its ground offensive in Gaza under way, Israel says it's discovered 13 tunnels used by Hamas to infiltrate the country or store weapons, reports AP. Israeli tanks and bulldozers are focusing on a strip about a mile wide near the border, looking for both tunnels and rocket pads, reports Reuters. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and two others injured today by Hamas fighters who emerged from one of those tunnels, reports the Washington Post. One Hamas militant also was killed in the firefight. Palestinians, meanwhile, say the death toll from Israeli airstrikes has passed 330, with nearly a quarter of those killed under the age of 18. In other developments: NBC reporter returns: NBC has reversed itself and allowed Ayman Mohyeldin to continue reporting from Gaza, reports AP. The network pulled Mohyeldin for unexplained reasons after he reported on the deaths of four Palestinian children, noting among other things that he had just been kicking around a ball with them. The move set off a social media outcry, especially among fellow journalists, notes Mediaite. The network had nothing but praise for Mohyeldin's "extraordinary reporting" in announcing his return. Analysis: In a New York Times analysis, Jodi Rudoren writes that the "landscape is different" than in years' past for this latest ground offensive, in ways that benefit Israel. This time, Israel "has publicly framed a clear agenda targeting tunnels it says militants built to store weapons or stage attacks on its territory. This time, a weakened Hamas cannot turn to Egypt for respite. This time, Western leaders appear more patient." That could change, however, if the ground offensive expands. Click for the full analysis.