Jerusalem - The Israeli army claimed on Tuesday that it had killed 130 Hamas fighters since launching a ground offensive in Gaza at the weekend.
"In the last two days at least 130 Hamas terror operatives were killed in battles with IDF ground forces in the Gaza Strip," an army spokesperson said.
The claim could not be immediately verified.
Israel poured ground forces into Gaza late Saturday, a week after unleashing a massive air and naval bombing campaign against Hamas targets in the enclave aiming to stop rocket fire.
Since then, at least 560 Palestinians have been killed, nearly 100 of them children, and more than 2 700 others wounded, according to Gaza medics. - Sapa-AFP