AN ISRAELI invasion of Gaza seemed imminent last night as jets pounded targets across the Strip for the third consecutive day.
Infantry troops, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers were poised along the border waiting for the green light to move.
Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak issued a warning to Hamas last night: "Unless the criminal fire at Israeli citizens stops immediately, Israel will utilise all the legal means at its disposal in order to halt the enemy's aggression."
An Israeli military source said the aim of an incursion would be to destroy rocket launchers, weapons storage facilities and tunnels used to smuggle arms and explosives from Egypt, as well as to engage militants.
Israeli sources said a ground incursion would be of limited duration to reduce the chances of casualties among the invading forces.
They said they believed that the Hamas military wing is still intact, and only a ground offensive will succeed in deterring the militant group.
Another indication that a ground offensive was imminent was the declaration of a 2-4km closed military zone adjacent to the Gaza border.
Israeli military planners would likely launch an invasion at night to take advantage of superior night-vision equipment.
Palestinian militias said they were completing their preparations for the invasion, promising that the Israeli forces would be met with "hundreds of car bombs and suicide bombers".
Palestinian sources say the militant groups plan to kidnap soldiers. Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the Hamas politburo, pledged his group will not surrender.
"We are going to defend ourselves, defend our people and defend our land," he said. Mr Abu Marzouk said there can be no talk of a truce unless Israeli attacks stop and the border crossings are reopened.
Ziad Abu-Tir, a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad military wing, was among five people killed in air strikes in the Khan Yunis area. His brother, nephew and two other people also died in the attack.
Seven people were killed when a rocket destroyed the home of a top Hamas military commander who was not in the building at the time.
Five people were killed when a vehicle carrying cooking gas was destroyed. An Israeli bomb struck the Imad Aqil mosque in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing five daughters in one family aged between four and 17 years.
Israeli warships also shelled targets from the Mediterranean. The number of dead in Gaza rose to more than 350. A UN spokesman in Gaza said at least 57 of the victims were civilians.
Despite the ongoing attacks, Palestinian gunmen fired more than 70 rockets into southern Israel.
An Israeli Arab labourer was killed when a missile hit a building site in the coastal city of Ashkelon, 14 others were wounded in the attack. Last night two Israelis were killed by rocket fire in the city of Ashdod.
Mr Barak said Israel was engaged in "an all-out war with Hamas". Addressing the Knesset, he said the aim of the operation was to force Hamas to stop its hostile actions directed at Israeli civilians.
EU foreign ministers will meet in Paris today to discuss the Israeli attack on Gaza, the French foreign ministry said. "The ministers will look at what the European Union can do to resolve the current crisis in cooperation with the international community, notably with the secretary-general of the United Nations," the ministry said in a statement.