Occupied Jerusalem: Israeli forces have killed nearly 40 Palestinian militants in the past week, accprding to the Israeli military chief.
Speaking on Israeli radio, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz said "The terrorists have paid a heavy price so far."
The Israeli military resumed operations in northern Gaza on Friday as the conflict over the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier escalated further.
Israeli Jets pounded northern Gaza on Friday morning, killing one Hamas militant and wounding three, Hamas and hospital officials said.
Palestinians fired seven rockets towards Israel. One caused some damage in the town of Sderot, just outside Gaza but no one was hurt.
At least 22 Palestinians and one Israeli have now been killed since fierce fighting broke out between the two sides on Thursday.
Palestinian President Esmail Haniyeh has called for international intervention to stop the offensive, which he called a "crime against humanity."
He described the incursion as "a desperate effort to undermine the Palestinian government under the pretext of a
search for the missing soldier."
The Hamas government's Interior Minister Said Siyyam issued a rallying call in an attempt to unite the various factions in Gaza, asking all security forces to fulfill their "religious and moral duty to stand up to this aggression and cowardly Zionist invasion."
Palestinian fighters armed with machine funs and rocket propelled grenade launchers confronted Israeli tanks and helicopters after the army took control of two former colonies in the Gaza Strip.
The incursion into Gaza was in response to two Palestinian rocket attacks on the Israeli city of Ashkelon and is designed to form a buffer zone which puts Israeli cities out of range.
There has still been no further news on Cpl Gilad Shalit who was captured by Hamas-affiliated gunmen on June 25.
