A mother of one of the four children killed on Gaza beach.

GAZA — ​Israeli tanks entered Gaza on Thursday night after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a ground invasion, a major escalation in a 10 day offensive that has already killed more than 231 Palestinians. 

Witnesses in Gaza reported heavy bombing from jets, warships and artillery stationed along the border, with much of the firing was directed at northern Gaza. The electricity was cut off across a large swathe of the strip, though it was unclear why.

A statement from Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon described the invasion as focused on destroying tunnels connecting Gaza to Israel.

A group of gunmen tried to enter southern Israel through a tunnel from Gaza on Thursday morning; the army said eight of the 13 attackers were killed, and Hamas claimed responsibility for the operation. It was the second such incident in the past 10 days.

“[The operation] will deal significant damage to the infrastructure of Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip,” they said.

The escalation came not long after a five-hour “humanitarian ceasefire” requested by the United Nations, which gave residents a brief chance to venture outside before the bombardment resumed. Both sides largely stopped firing and people ventured out to markets, grocers, barbers and banks, which opened for the first time in more than a week.

At least 231 Palestinians have been killed so far, including 39 children, and more than 1,700 injured. One Israeli has been killed by rocket fire from Gaza. 

Media reports on Thursday afternoon, attributed to Israeli officials, suggested that a ceasefire had been agreed and would take effect the next morning. But diplomatic sources said that the parties were still meeting, and both sides have now denied the reports.

Later in the afternoon, Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, told reporters there was no significant progress in the talks. He also denied that any Hamas leaders had even traveled to Cairo: Moussa Abu Marzouq, a senior member of the group, has been meeting with Egyptian mediators, but he has been a longtime resident of Cairo. 

Azzam al-Ahmad, a Fatah representative in Cairo, also told Al Jazeera that there was no agreement. 

The Israeli delegation in Cairo includes Yoram Cohen, the head of the Shin Bet security service, and Yitzhak Molcho, a close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, hinted at a long military campaign, telling a group of ambassadors to step up their diplomatic efforts. “The report on a ceasefire, allegedly for tomorrow morning, is far from reflecting reality,” he said. “I spoke now with the prime minister and at least right now, this is unknown to us.” 

Hamas last week outlined a few basic terms for ending the conflict, demanding an end of the siege on Gaza and the release of dozens of prisoners freed in a 2011 deal but re-arrested this summer. 

Those concessions would be politically difficult and unpopular in Israel—and in Egypt, which would have to open the Rafah crossing with Gaza. The year-old military-backed government in Cairo has taken a hard line towards Hamas, declaring it a terrorist organization and destroying the smuggling tunnels on which it relied for revenue. 

With no diplomatic progress, Israel resumed airstrikes shortly after the UN’s ceasefire ended. Three children from the same family were killed in a bombing in Gaza City, one day after a strike on a beach killed four other young children, cousins from a fishing family who were playing by the port. 

Palestinian groups fired more than 100 rockets into Israel, including two barrages at the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. No serious injuries or damage were reported. 

The army also said it shot down a drone launched from Gaza, for the second time the week.

Israeli shelling murders four children 

Four Palestinian children were killed by an air strike while playing football on Gaza beach on Wednesday. Dozens of international journalists witnessed the tragedy.

“This is a cowardly crime,” said Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry.

The children were Ahed Atef Bakr and Zakaria Ahed Bakr, both aged 10, Mohamed Ramez Bakr, 11, and Ismael Mohamed Bakr, 9. All those killed were relatives, while another boy is in hospital in critical condition.

“The kids were playing football on the beach,” Ahmed Abu Hassera, who witnessed the explosions, told Reuters. “When the first shell hit the land, they ran away but another shell hit them all. It looked as if the shells were chasing them.”

“We live by the coast. There was a headline on the news that four children were injured … so we went looking for the kids and we could not find them, so we came here to the hospital to look for them and we found them all, including my son … oh my God,” a man who introduced himself as the father of Zakaria, told NBC.

The Israeli Defense Forces have denied targeting the children, who came from the family of a fisherman whose shack on the beach was decimated by the strike.

“We do not target civilians, we target Hamas terrorists,” IDF representative Peter Lerner told RT.

“I have seen the footage of the incident, and indeed it does look tragic, and we will have to look into the circumstances.”

Although it was initially thought that the mortars came from a gunboat, senior IDF officials have told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper that the shells came from Israeli planes, hunting down Hamas militants.  

— Al Jazeera, RT, TAAN